da ron files

New Year's Resolution, 2012

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

It's 2012! Happy New Year!

That can only mean one thing...

The End is Nigh!

Ok, we don't know, really. The Mayans were probably tired and gave up at 2012 when they made their calendar.

Anyway, after deliberating over the exam period, it's finally done. Here's my New Year's Resolution for 2012...

ACADEMICS

I will finish my 2nd year with at least a 2:1 overall.
I will NOT go back to Jakarta over Christmas, so I can focus on my January exams in 2013.

JOB PROSPECTS

I will get an Internship, and I will actually enjoy my internship &// find it useful and beneficial.
I will actually help Robin with his Bubble Today website (have you heard of it? it's really good)
I will brush up on any sort of code. HTML5/CSS/Objective-C, etc. Seriously, I will actually improve my knowledge of one/more of the above-mentioned computer/web design languages.

SOCIETY STUFF

I will be in a committee in my 3rd year and not regret it.
I will submit 6 articles to Exeposé by December 2013. Surely not that difficult, right?
I will ~~single-handedly~~ work in a team to make Photosoc awesome.
I will learn to develop film.
I will get presenter-trained/tested and get my own radio show on Xpression. 2 ideas for a show at the moment: A "Versus" show, in the style of Zane Lowe, AND/OR a food review show, reviewing the food on campus and in Exeter. (If I do get that food review show, I'll get off my pescatarian diet straight away.)

MUSIC CRED

I will go to a gig in 2012.
I will not chicken out like I did in 2010/2011, and I will actually get tickets to Glastonbury 2013. (ANYONE ELSE INTERESTED?)

Failing that, I'd love to go to any of the major music festivals while I'm still in the UK. BBL, perhaps?

PERSONAL LIFE

I will get a girlfriend. I'm 20 (as of 14 Feb, which is exactly one month away.), my brother's getting married tomorrow (15th Jan), so every nosey member of my extended family (and my mum) is going to start asking me now. Alright. THERE! I'll have a girlfriend by the end of 2012! HAPPY?!
I will give up chocolate for Lent.
I will wean off my Pescatarian diet by the time the June exams come. And I will then learn to cut the sugars and carbs out of my diet.
I will run a 10K (standard triathlon distance).
I will cycle 40K (standard triathlon distance).
I will try to do a triathlon in one day. Yes, I know I've had this resolution as holiday targets that never ever gets done, but I'm going to give it a try.

FINANCES/TECH

I will NOT ask my parents for any more money until the 2012/2013 academic year, when I really need money to pay my tuition fees.
I'm allowed to buy an iPhone 5 and a new Mac this year. NO MORE. No iPad, no iPod.

20 resolutions in 2012. Let's see how I get on!

Christmas Vacation To-Do List

2011-12-08T01:26:00.001Z

So that I have it on record...

Things to do this Christmas...

REVISION

Revise BEA 2001 Financial Accounting (just because it's MCQ, doesn't mean you should ignore it)
Revise BEA 2005 Information Systems
Revise BEA 2008 Management Accounting I

OTHER UNI-RELATED STUFF

Do your bit for the CIMA Global Business Challenge
Do your bit for the BEA 2002 Taxation Group Work, due 3 days after my birthday
Find out about filling up grant applications/budgets for PhotoSoc

HOLIDAY/FAMILY TIME

Go to Penang w/ bro and sis-in-law

ADMIN/WORK TIME

Go to Singapore and catch up with St. Andrew's/Choir mates
Go to Singapore and collect Work Holiday Pass
Ask Deloitte Singapore about Internship/Graduate job application (waaay overdue, this one)
Work for Dad (standard)

SPORTS

Do all 3 sports from a triathlon in 1 day (i.e.: swim, cycle and run). Doesn't have to be the full length, but do all 3 in one day.

BLOG

Do my annual New Year's Resolution post (forgot to do one for 2011 - that's not happening again for 2012)

13 things. 3 weeks. Let's get cracking, then!

Crap, 20?

2011-12-08T00:36:00.001Z

Heh, forgot I have a blog. Hello!

Seems like the only time I post on this darn thing is when the following conditions are met:

my work's died down (i.e.: not during the middle of term)
my life is not boring (i.e.: not in the middle of my holiday breaks)
I'm not busy being festive or travelling (i.e.: not Christmas / Lebaran)

Hang on, that crosses out the whole year.

Oh well...

Yes, the blog's not dead. If you've read this blog before, you know I have the habit of beating this blog on its head and putting it into a coma for months, before splashing it with water, and then beating it again. Call it blog abuse, but it's not the first time I've done it. Not the last, either.

I decided to go back to blogging because a startling fact just dawned on me not too long ago.

I'm going to be 20 soon.

So what?

Well, maybe I'm being overly melodramatic, but I can't help to ask the question: what the heck was the last 20 years all about, and what's coming up in the next 20 years?

A part of me thinks the last 20 years was just a disarray, a mess, a shaky foundation to a future that's going to fall and tumble majestically. A road downhill (and anyone who's cycled with me knows that I can be a road hazard when coming downhill).

A part of me thinks the last 20 years was eventful, meaningful, purposeful, and all things considering, no small feat. (The other part of me is cynical, as usual.)

I keep having different scenarios in my head about how my life's going to end up.

I live to be a centenarian, married with kids and grandkids (and great grandkids).
I live to be a centenarian, alone.
I live till age 40, death by cancer.
I live till age 35, alone, living on the street.
I live till age 21, end of.
~~I don't think I want to talk about number 6.~~

A few facts I need to establish...

Probability of me getting a girlfriend = 0.0005,
partly because I'm a self-centred workaholic who went to an all-boys school, and forgot how to socialise with girls. FACT.
Probability of me getting a job that's not with my dad = 0.001,
partly because my dad often gets his way, and because I can't stay to work anywhere else in Indonesia (because my command of the Bahasa Indonesia language is laughable), and because I'm Indonesian, I'm gonna need the luck of an Irishman (literally) if I ever want to migrate, and even then, I'm gonna need the sort of luck my Dad has if I think I can survive on my own.
Probability of me graduating from Uni with a First or 2:1 = 0.75 -
the only thing I can look forward to right now, before life goes downhill.
Probability of me getting either cancer, a mental disorder, dementia, diabetes/coronary heart disease, or killed by a fatal cycling accident = 1
it's as certain as death in itself. If it's any consolation to me, I've narrowed down the possible ways I could die into that list up there.

Cancer from the microwaved dinners/improper diet,
mental disorder+dementia are already showing its teeth (by that, I mean the research studies show that these become more prevalent with people today as they age),
diabetes because of my mum's side (potentially hereditary),
coronary heart disease because of the sort of diet I have when I'm in Indo with my family, and
cycling accidents have happened to me a few times already, so the "lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place" rule is abolished for that last one.

Probability that any of the statistics I've mentioned are wrong/inaccurate, including this one that's coming up: 0.99

K, jokes from a slightly down and depressed guy.

You know what, I'm signing off here before I come up with any more grim jokes like that.

Sorry if this was the first time you've read a thing that I typed, btw.

An Op-Ed on Ultrabooks

2011-07-20T17:46:00.002+01:00

ultrabook |ˈəltrəˌbŏk|
noun
A term used to describe a category of thin-and-light ultraportable laptops, coined by Intel Corp

It seems like this could be how Intel imagines the future of mobile computing to be -

small (between 9" and 13" screens),
thin (less than 1" thick),
light (less than 2kg and without an optical drive),
inexpensive,
loaded with wireless technologies (3G/4G, Bluetooth, 802.11n, etc.)
long battery life (≥7 hours),
powered by an Intel Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge multicore CPU,
and a solid-state drive.

There are a couple of examples of Ultrabooks that are coming soon/available now. Apple's recently-updated MacBook Air is probably the most well-known ultrabook out there, alongside various iterations of Vaio X/Z models, as well as some up-and-coming Asus and HP products.

As a user of a 15" MacBook Pro, there are a few things that I find appealing in the Ultrabook concept, and a few that I have gripes with.

The most appealing feature about laptops in general is probably its portability. The ability to work from anywhere with a slab of electronics-plus-casing-with-batteries, at the expense of a bit of horsepower, has made the laptop an attractive product offering in any PC manufacturer's product lineup relative to their desktop counterparts.

The ultrabook concept seems to be the natural evolutionary step for the laptop, then - getting lighter, more compact, and setting in stone the transition from the fragile and vulnerable HDD (with disk heads moving around barely microns over some platters) to the more robust and faster SSDs (which are basically NAND Flash).

However, as laptops shrink, the thermal environment in which to squeeze the essential components of a computer also shrinks, leading to crippled, low-power, "energy-saving" parts going into an overpriced and sluggish device. This has always been why I never buy sub-14" notebooks. It's rare to see a laptop under 14" that has a discrete GPU (read: not the Intel Graphics, or the occasional Nvidia/AMD-ATI integrated cards) - the only one that springs to mind right now is the Alienware M11x.

In an ideal world, my dream laptop would be a 13" laptop with a discrete GPU card, SSD+HDD, and because I love this feature on my current laptop, a backlit keyboard.

In reality, a 13" laptop would either weigh like my current 15", or be powered by the Intel Graphics.

But recent developments in the laptop arena, specifically from the Sony and Apple camps, have given me this new image of computing in the future.

Picture this scene: you're at work, working on a Word Document on your laptop. Suddenly, you've been given a task that involves heavy use of the GPU. It could be editing a video files, or perhaps giving a presentation on an external projector. This is when you normally get fed up, because your laptop just can't handle the task. What if you could add some extra horsepower to the laptop, just for this task? Something like an external dock, which has a GPU, connected via a fast connection (ExpressCard, eSATA, FireWire, USB3, Thunderbolt, etc.), maybe even build it into the projector/display itself. When you don't need the extra power, just unplug the GPU, and you are back to working on a thin-and-light, long-battery-life ultraportable.

We can run wild with this idea. The Ultrabooks shown on the gadget blogs seem to only have the essentials. The external docking device might include things that you only need when you're at a desk - a charging solution (a la Apple's Thunderbolt Display), extra ports, extra disk space (for your movies/photos/music), extra screen/projector, an optical drive (when was the last time you used the one in your laptop, anyway?), external GPU (upgradeable?). The list goes on.

With the development of Thunderbolt/USB3 and the emergence of Ultrabooks, perhaps there is a potential demand for power-boosting external docks again. Just imagine - a 13" sub-1kg thin-and-light laptop with 10 hours battery life, and when plugged in at home, can transform into a gaming rig churning MW3 at 60fps. All for the price of a MacBook Air + GPU.

The only issues I can foresee are these:

The CPU on the MacBook Air may become a bottleneck, relative to the GPU.
PC gamers would probably build proper rigs, not get an ultrabook + dock.
Will the typical ultrabook buyer be savvy enough to understand the benefits of the external dock, and if so, will they be willing to buy it?
Each company/manufacturer will probably have their own proprietary docking solution. Monopolies ensue.

In spite of these issues, I really think it's a solution that's worth a try. Just make sure the price is right (glares at Sony).

Google & Social Network.

2011-07-08T20:56:00.001+01:00

Today, I've joined an elite class of web users that have special powers that others don't.

Alright, that's how I see it. But in reality, I know Google Plus is just an overhyped, Facebook-esque service, provided by the brilliant folks at Google. A service, which at the time of post, is still under wraps for most, as it undergoes a limited trial test (*cough* BETA *cough*).

I have to admit. I've been skeptical when I heard that Google was developing a social networking service. Looking back at this company's past history of social networking services (Orkut, Google Buzz, Jaiku, and arguably, Google Wave), we can see that Google has made attempts into this realm before, and with the exception of Orkut, they've had brief moments of success before the hype surrounding them died down, and people went back to Facebook and Twitter like a yo-yo.

Indeed, developing a social network to compete against the dominant players right now (Facebook and Twitter) is no easy task. These companies have been building up their user base, to the extent where they now have enough power to enable them to "tentacle" their way across the internet. Nowadays, it's rare to come across a news site or a blog that doesn't give you the option to share the news story on Facebook or Twitter. Facebook and Twitter have shaped our lives in more ways than one - from procrastinating with Farmville and #Hashtags, to toppling regimes in the Arab Spring; from being able to know what @ProfBrianCox is thinking, to seeing tagged photos of your antics from last night at Arena. My point is: think social network, and the top results in your mind are likely to include Facebook and Twitter (disregarding the regional equivalents for the moment, like RenRen and Orkut). Google has the challenge of shaking away their past non-successes and coming up with a competitive product that will stick in people's minds for the right reasons.

Is Google Plus the right solution to this challenge? Well, let's look at what it has to offer first.

From what I've seen and heard thus far, Google+ is attempting to integrate various Google services together. Think of it as an aggregator for what you do with Google. Your Blogger blog posts, your Picasa uploads, your "+1"s on a news story that you read somewhere (I +1 this, or in Facebook speak, I like this), your Google Chat (remember that, from the days when it was in Gmail?), your YouTube activities, maybe your gaming activities on Angry Bird (think Apple's Game Centre, but on Android + other platforms). At this point, you might say "I can do all that already. It's called Facebook". True, all these features have been available on other services.

But perhaps the most exciting this for me about Google+ is their concept of Circles.

The best way of explaining circles is probably this: Imagine Google+ is a chatroom with all your online contacts together - your relatives, your ex-teachers, your ex-girl/boyfriend, your flatmates, your coursemates, your colleagues, etc. Sometimes, you just want an outlet to say something, but perhaps you only want certain people to see it, and not others, and you don't want to set a specific privacy setting just for that one status update on Facebook or that one Tweet, because it takes umpteen steps to do so. Well, Circles in Google+ is very similar to the idea of lists in Facebook, but made simpler. By default, Google gives you 4 circles to start off with - Friends, Family, Acquaintances, and Following. By putting your contacts into individual circles, you can now post certain things, and choose to share it with a specific circle(s), extended circles, just your contacts, or if you don't mind, the whole world. Because Google emphasises the Circles feature right from the outset when you want to add contacts, you are more likely to sort out your contacts into "circles" then with lists on Facebook. The clean user interface in which Google presents the Circles idea to you could not have been any simpler - you just drag a contact into the appropriate circle. Simple as that. And posting a status update is now easier than sending an email - you compose the status, and you choose who you want to send it to via Circles. And if you made a mistake, the brilliant minds at Google Inc can allow you to make an edit, even after posting. No more embarrassing typos!

One other feature that is of interest to me right now is the "Hangouts" feature on Google+. This concept is not exactly new - video/text chat over a social network, with people who happen to be online. However, recent events at Facebook has made this feature pop out to me. In case you haven't heard, Facebook and Skype have recently deepened their partnership by not only enabling Skype users to search their Facebook contacts, but also (most crucially), allowing Facebook users to have a video chat with each other over Facebook. Imagine that, I see that my friend is (as usual) procrastinating on Facebook, and I start a video chat with him/her. Considering how much time we spend online on social networking sites, this could be a hot feature for Facebook. Could this be a deal-breaker for Facebook? Or is this just Facebook trying to steal some limelight from Google's newest baby by playing catchup?

Putting aside the Facebook factor, I think Google+ is a pretty convincing product. Even though it's still in a limited field test, I think it's a clean, polished product with some compelling features, and assuming the backend stuff can scale to accommodate the masses, it is a brilliant service that's ready for primetime.

The problem is the elephant in the room - Facebook. Think about the number of friends you have on Facebook, the number of photos you have on Facebook (that's photos uploaded, and/or photos tagged of you). With Google+, it's a reboot - you have to spend time rebuilding things again. One of my friends on Google+ was telling me, as much as he loves Google+, he'll probably stick with Facebook for now because, well, that's where everyone and everything is at the moment.

The other issue right now is that I don't see any feature that is unique to Google+, that is a must-have, and not obtainable anywhere else on the web. Its 3 biggest selling point (as sold by Google) - Circles, Hangouts and Sparks (which is a feed of things that you are interested in, and which you can share with friends), are not that much different from Facebook Lists, Facebook Chat, and Facebook Likes/Share Options on articles in your RSS feed, respectively. The only plus side advantage that Google has right now is that the Google solution is simpler and cleaner. Apart from that, it's the same thing, is it not?

Google has certainly put their back into their latest attempt at going against Facebook - they've come up with a polished, convincing competitor to match Facebook. If Mark Zuckerburg hadn't had the few beers it took for him to kickstart the whole Facebook project, I would have definitely loved Google+ in an instant. It will take a lot of time and effort before people will embrace Google+. Nevertheless, I am hoping for Google to stay with this one for the long-haul and not abandon ship after a few months. After all, as economists would say, competition can be good for consumer choice, as it keeps the competing firms (read: Google & Facebook) on their toes. I'm looking forward to seeing how Google will impact the social networking services industry.

List of things to do this summer...

2011-06-12T01:05:00.000+01:00

Fitness

1. Try running again

2. Try swimming again

3. Continue cycling

4. Try doing all 3 together (triathlon!)

iOS Development
1. Learn C Programming
2. Learn Objective-C Programming
3. Create an app.

Travel
1. Go to Singapore
2. Travel to the States in late August

Work experience
1. Do some work at my relative's office. (Maybe combine with the app development?)

Music
1. Make a mix.

Society Stuff
1. Read the Guild's guide to Society Finances for PhotoSoc.
2. Read the XpressionFM Presenter Training Guide while I have the time.

13 things. 3 months. Let's see how much of these I actually accomplish.

WWDC 2011 Roundup

2011-06-07T22:51:00.000+01:00

1. The main people giving the presentation:

Steve Jobs (1)
Scott Forstall (1)

2. We will see iOS 5 ~~ripping~~ adding features that have been on Android/BlackBerry for a while -

*the pull-down status bar of Android (1),
the push messaging of BBM (1) , amongst other things.
Also, big on the Twitter integration (1).

3. We will see OS X Lion adding features that have been seen in developer previews -

Launch Control = Exposé + Spaces + Pages in iOS (1),
Instapaper-like feature (1),
App Store improvements (1),
Find My Mac (1).

4. We will see iCloud and how it interacts with Lion and iOS5 -

it'll be an online locker for music (1),
files (1),
and apps (1).
Also could be the basis for the BBM-like messaging service and FaceTime (a bit sketchy on this one, so 0 for now)

5. Release dates -

iOS5: 2 weeks' time (0). [Fall]
Lion: 2 months' time, to give Devs a chance to test OS/UI compatibility. (0.5) [close enough - late July would arguably be 2 months.]
iCloud: 2 weeks' time (0), in time for iOS5 (0.5). [Fall, too]

6. Not happening today -

new Mac hardware (1)
FCP (1, hurts me to say it's not happening today, since I've seen the FCP X demoes, and love it).

7. One More Thing...

iPhone 4s (0): [never happened, did it?]
release date late August (0).

Overall score: 15/20. Not too shabby...

Now, more on the keynote itself.

Since the keynote was at WWDC, it's obviously going to be aimed at developers - OS X Lion, iOS5 and iCloud to sync.

On OS X Lion

OS X Lion, as Apple talked about before, borrows features from their sister iOS on the iPad, especially in terms of the UI elements, with Multi-touch, Launchpad, and Full-screen applications. They've also refined the core OS X user experience features, merging Exposé and Spaces into "Mission Control", which can be activated with a multi-touch gesture. With over 70% of Mac sales being in the form of notebooks, and with the new desktop Macs now shipping with a multi-touch mouse (or trackpad, even), Apple seems adamant that multi-touch experience is THE way users should interact with their computer. This seems like a natural progression from what they've done in the mobile space with the iPhone.

However, it could alienate certain users. For one, you need a multi-touch mouse or trackpad to get the experience of OS X Lion as intended. Furthermore, there's a pretty steep learning curve, as you try to figure out how many fingers are needed to to activate something, and how to move your fingers. I know everyone who's tried using my MacBook Pro baffled and annoyed, because they're unfamiliar with Multitouch on OS X Snow Leopard. Since Lion has MORE gestures, it'll probably be more difficult for them!

Apart from the UI changes, Apple's made some new, nice improvements that you'd think are in computers already, but turns out, they're not. Resume (i.e.: resume the state from last log-off/shut-down), Auto-Save (when working on documents) and Versions (which works with Auto-Save to be a Time Machine for documents), might potentially be time-savers (or even life-savers). Oh, and AirDrop - Why are we still passing files over thumbdrives, even when the computers are connected over the same network?

And the App Store - I'm not going to talk about how this should have been around since the beginning of the Internet. A downloads catalogue, much like Download.com, but tailored to the platform, why didn't this exist in OS X 10.0? Anyway, I want to compliment Apple for leading by example - no longer selling their software product on DVDs, and going exclusively on the App Store.

Other loved features (from the list of 250)

International Voices
Search Tokens (i.e.: metadata-based search)
Recovery Mode Partition - a separate Partition created by OS X Lion, which you can boot into to Restore. Quite important that they've figured this out, or else, how do we reinstall the OS without a OS X DVD?
Full Screen Chess. Chess. In Full Screen.
Auto-correct, like on the iPhone.
Quick Look in Spotlight.
New PhotoBooth Effect. I don't love it, but I bet to you, your cam-whoring friends will love them.
Bind Apps to a Space - will definitely help clear the clutter on my desktop. Ever tried looking through a pile of open windows that look almost the same? Your Safari windows, your Mail, your iTunes/Spotify, Word/Excel/PPT, Twitter, Skype, iCal, etc. Rather than manually assigning apps to a space, why not make the OS do it?

On iOS 5

Features I Love...

Wireless Sync via WiFi (finally!)
non-intrusive notifications (though I still wished the pull-down notification panel would give options for Bluetooth/GPS/3G/Mobile Data/WiFi/Airplane Mode settings
OTA updates (finally!)
Multi-touch gestures on iPad (have it already, actually)
Auto-exposure & Auto-focus locking (they didn't explain how you do it, but this feature will be handy for taking proper nice photos in high-contrast situations)
Edit photos on-screen (basic photo editing in the photos app, at last!)
Reminders (I know the same could be done in iCal, but this one's location-aware! how cool is that?)
Tabbed browsing on the iPad - the screen's big enough for it, so why not?
Quick Photo App Access from Lock Screen - not sure how safe this actually is, but nice feature to have for the quick Kodak moment. Hang on, next to the lock slide? I expect accidental snaps.

I'm not sure why, maybe it's just me, but iOS updates seem to excite me more than OS X updates in recent times. To be fair, OS X is a matured OS, whereas iOS is still young, and even though I like it, there's definitely a fair share of flaws and room for improvement, especially compared to the jailbroken OS and competing OSes (Android and RIM, specifically).

Speaking of competitors, Apple has evidently been watching around and you can see they're not staying still. iMessage is Apple's BBM, Notification is better than it used to be arguably because Android has a better implementation of it, and Apple's probably the only company to make phones that are reliant on the PC/Mac (e.g.: for activation, updates and files), and that's been fixed with the PC-free features (Over-the-air updates being one that caught my eyes, and worries me somewhat, after seeing how is hasn't worked that well on Android. Will wait and see on this one).

Apple also seem to be responding to their publishing partners, too. Newsstand is a nice idea - grouping all the different magazine apps into one (cuts on the clutter online), and gives Apple a way to make money from subscriptions.

One thing I've noticed is how Apple seems to be rubbing shoulders with the guys at Twitter HQ - Twitter on Ping (oh, wait, nobody uses that) and now, all over iOS. Just one question: What about Facebook? Sure, Twitter's popular, but not amongst people I know! Yes, I admit, I was looking at it from my own point of view, but the truth stands - why is Apple aligning itself with Twitter and only Twitter?

And on the subject of rubbing shoulders, why did Apple add features that are hurting other developers? Instapaper won't be too happy with Reading Lists, and Whatsapp is probably not too pleased with iMessage. Oh, how many camera apps on the iTunes Store tried adding the "volume button as a camera button" feature? Oh, and iCloud...

On iCloud

It's no secret that Apple's had MobileMe (previously iDisk). And let's face it, MobileMe was not value for money - the things it have, you can get elsewhere. Push Mail/Calendar is now in Yahoo! and Gmail, and mobile storage is free with DropBox. The only reason for MobileMe was Find My iPhone/iPad. Now, though, it's been replaced with iCloud. Apparently, this was the reason why Apple bought that plot of land in North Carolina for a data server farm. Exciting stuff, there.

Apple sees iCloud as a way to level the playing field between devices. In the past, the computer/PC was king - everything syncs with it. Now, Apple hopes the "cloud" will be the brain, and everything else its "subordinates" - essentially, downgrading the status of the PC.

Although details are still a bit confusing at the moment, it seems like iCloud will sync the MobileMe stuff (contacts, calendar, mail, documents and photos), and now, books and backup.

iCloud looks more Dev-friendly, and now, there's APIs for Developers to use/access iCloud Storage for documents in their apps.

Notice I didn't mention apps and music in the list of things that iCloud will sync, because let's face it, it's essentially letting you re-download apps/music you already have the right to, because you've bought them. Apple's just decided to be nice and not make you pay again. I just hope that when they say "App Syncing", they know not to sync iPhone apps onto my iPad and vice versa.

What's interesting, though, is the iTunes Match Service - the US$24.99/year service which lets iTunes scan the songs you have in your catalogue that wasn't bought on iTunes, and gives you access to them from the iTunes Store/iCloud.

Why I said this was interesting: what about the "MmmBop" track you pirated in 1999? If that's still in your library, with the appropriate metadata, and iTunes scans it, will the service (a) report you to the RIAA? and/or (b) give you legal access to the iTunes copy of the same song, even though the copy you have isn't legit? Is this Apple's proposal to the recording labels of a way to make money from pirates? If yes, will piracy rise again, because people have essentially "paid away" their "sin"?

Also, is this anti-competitive? Because now, you have an incentive to buy music from Apple rather than Amazon, because although Amazon tend to be cheaper, you have to foot the $24.99/year bill if you want to sync with iCloud. And unless you're buying 25 albums a year (disclaimer: very dodgy calculations), it's probably more worth it to buy your songs from Apple if you need iCloud.

Which you don't. I mean, what's wrong with good old USB? It's probably faster, it doesn't eat up bandwidth, and best of all, it charges your battery, rather than drain it! Honestly, though, is this innovative? Not really. But heck, it's free (for the syncing, plus $24.99 for the iTunes match service), and if it actually works well, I guess it's a nice freebie to make people feel like they're in the digital age.

Let's just hope iCloud's not just all-hype-and-no-function. I genuinely hope it works as advertised. Because look at what a disappointment Apple's past web product has been.

Things I'm looking forward to in iCloud

iTunes Match (if it works)
Backup (if it works without eating into my data allowance too much)
Apps Syncing (Just so I know which apps I've bought)
iBooks Sync (Thank you, Amazon Whispersync)
Music Sync (let me have access to songs I own, but forgot to sync, on my iPhone for free! And no need to upload every single track I own. Smart, efficient way to go about the problem of music syncing over the cloud)

WWDC 2011 Predictions

2011-06-06T17:08:00.000+01:00

You know the drill - I spout a few things that I predict to happen at WWDC, and I get one point for every thing that comes true. [Each thing is indicated with a "(1)", indicating the points I get for getting it right.]

1. The main people giving the presentation:

Steve Jobs (1)
Scott Forstall (1)

2. We will see iOS 5 ~~ripping~~ adding features that have been on Android/BlackBerry for a while -

the pull-down status bar of Android (1),
the push messaging of BBM (1) , amongst other things.
Also, big on the Twitter integration (1).

3. We will see OS X Lion adding features that have been seen in developer previews -

Launch Control = Exposé + Spaces + Pages in iOS (1),
Instapaper-like feature (1),
App Store improvements (1),
Find My Mac (1).

4. We will see iCloud and how it interacts with Lion and iOS5 -

it'll be an online locker for music (1),
files (1),
and apps (1).
Also could be the basis for the BBM-like messaging service and FaceTime (1).

5. Release dates -

iOS5: 2 weeks' time (1).
Lion: 2 months' time, to give Devs a chance to test OS/UI compatibility. (1)
iCloud: 2 weeks' time (1), in time for iOS5.

6. Not happening today -

new Mac hardware (1)
FCP (1, hurts me to say it's not happening today, since I've seen the FCP X demoes, and love it).

7. One More Thing...

iPhone 4s (1):
release date late August (1).

So, 20 things. Let's see how right/wrong I am...

P.s.: Yes, I did cheat on the Lion stuff - the blogs have been talking about the things I mentioned - not much I can say, since the dev builds have been out there, and unless they added new features today, I doubt there'll be anything exciting in Lion, apart from the iCloud integration.

Music Chart for the moment

2011-05-21T11:29:00.000+01:00

Yes, it's back! And so am I!

After such a long hiatus, as a result of my Easter holiday plans and the exams (which haven't finished yet, I should point out, at the time of post - my last exam's on Monday, 23 May), I'm finally re-re-reviving my blog. Starting things the way I traditionally kick things off when I can't be bothered to recount recent events in my life - a Music Chart for the moment!

And what good timing, as well - there's so much awesome tracks coming out/being blasted over the airwaves around this time of the year, in the run-up to the summer season of festivals. The dance music genres are traditionally the most hyped-up at this time of the year, thanks to places like Ibiza. But don't just think it's the Swedish House Mafia and David Guetta that are getting in on the action - Lady Gaga's new album is coming out in a matter of days, after the weekly singles releases from Born This Way to Hair. And let's not forget the genre for which I have a soft spot - the alternative music scene. Last year, I was raving on about Owl City, Stornoway and The xx. This year, we've got quite a few brilliant newcomers to the mainstream limelight, from the spooky and eerie Jamie Woon, and the melancholic Ed Sheeran, to people with really long names, like Benjamin Francis Leftwich and James Vincent McMorrow. And it's not just the new, either, that's exciting me. The Wombats, Panic! At The Disco and Metronomy are just a few names with recent releases that have been candy to my ears whilst revising.

I could go on mentioning the brilliant tracks on my summer playlist right now, but there's just too many that I'm loving right now, and I bet you have your own faves for this season as well.

So, enough chatter from me, let's get with the charts, shall we?

Music Chart for the Moment
Filed: 21 May 2011

#1: Swedish House Mafia - Save The World [Seriously, I'm so hooked on this track, I think I need rehab.]

#2: The Wombats - Techno Fan

#3: Ed Sheeran - The A Team

#4: Toddla T - Take It Back

#5: Jamie Woon - Night Air

#6: Alex Metric feat. Steve Angello - Open Your Eyes

#7: Lady Gaga - Edge Of Glory

#8: Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Pictures

#9: James Vincent McMorrow - This Old Dark Machine

#10: Birdy - Skinny Love

BUBBLING UNDER: Owl City - Alligator Sky

So, what do you think? Yea? Nay? Comments, please!

[P.s.: If you're reading this on Blogger, please use the moderated comments option below - I've removed the tagboard, because there was too much spam.]

Cheers,

Ron

30 Day Song Challenge in a day.

2011-03-29T20:40:00.000+01:00

I've been noticing this 30 Day Song Challenge thing on the walls of some of my friends on Facebook. Was intrigued, and I personally want to take part, but I can't be bothered to think of 1 song to match the theme each day for 30 days - I'll probably forget on certain days...

So, without further ado, here's me, doing the 30-day song challenge, done in one day.

day 01 - your favorite song
Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent)

First heard it in the closing segment for Top Gear season 13's final episode. Then, At the Brian Eno event during Brighton Festival 2010, I heard it performed live by Icebreaker and BJ Cole. One of the most stunning, brilliant, and mesmerising piece of instrumental music of our time.

day 02 - your least favorite song

Backstreet Boys - Everybody (Backstreet's Back)

This was a hard one, because I could have seen this in 2 ways - music that annoys me (namely, "The Time (Dirty Bit)" by Black Eyed Peas, We Speak No Americano, Gramaphonzie, that sort of stuff), or music that scares me (anything heavy metal). And the thing is, as someone who's not so musically inclined, I have respect for musicians of all kinds, even if I don't like their music. Having said that, I think I'll a genre that I never liked, and probably never will - boy-bands. It's a song that represents everything I hate about my childhood in terms of pop music from boybands.

day 03 - a song that makes you happy

Dragonette feat. Martin Solveig - Hello

Easy one - this song seem to always put me in the right mood. I don't even mind that it gets overplayed on the radio, because it makes me happy!

day 04 - a song that makes you sad

Nelly Furtado - All Good Things (Come To An End)

Again, another easy one. This came from the same album that brought you "Maneater". Quite an apt title, though, considering it's the last track on that album. This song constantly reminds me of the various times that I enjoyed, coming to a conclusion. It's an anthem, if you could call it, for the end to good times. That's why it makes me sad. Good on you, Nelly Furtado. Promiscuous girl, but with a soft side.

day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone

Hillsong Live - This Is Our God

I'm a Christian, and I believe that amidst all the chaos in this world and in my life, there is someone in control. And this song reminds me of that someone.

day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

Fatboy Slim - Praise You

I've come to associate this song with Brighton. And why not? When I worked at the British Heart Foundation Store on Western Road, Brighton, I kept hearing this song during the timeslot that I worked (Saturday, 10am-2pm). Ah, the issue of having one DJ doing the same shift every week. Anyway, I also often heard this song before/after service at St Peters Brighton. And, let's not forget, where is Fatboy Slim now? You guessed it. Brighton.

day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event

David Guetta - Memories

Reminds me of 1st week of Uni. 'nuff said.

day 08 - a song that you know all the words to

Owl City - Fireflies

Well, I had to, seeing that I went to his concert in Brighton. Oh, I tried learning this song in ASL (American Sign Language).

day 09 - a song that you can dance to

Black Eyed Peas - Rock Your Body

Heh. I'm assuming this means dancing in a club, or dancing because I enjoy a song so much I make movement with my body - i.e.: not dance like people on "So You Think You Can Dance", because I'm hopeless in that sort of moves. In that case, well, I guess I'll pick the song that I use to wake up.

day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep

Jónsi & Alex - Boy 1904

A spooky yet calming and relaxing piece of ambience music. Thanks to Spotify, really, for leading me to Jónsi's other works, aside from his Sigur Ros and solo stuff.

day 11 - a song from your favorite band

The Corrs - Baby Be Brave

The Corrs was the first band I latched to, liked, and became a fan till they decided to go on an extended hiatus (I'm still hoping for a reunion soon.) This was one of my favourite songs from them.

day 12 - a song from a band you hate

Blue - One Love

As mentioned before, I hate 90's boy bands. Blue's another one.

day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure

Thom Yorke - Black Swan

I know it has the F-bomb in its lyrics repeated over and over again, and being a clean/never-say-f**k person, I'm not supposed to be approving of such songs, but hey, it's got a great beat, and come on, it's Yorke! You know him. The guy from Radiohead? yeah, that's him.

day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love

Lindsay Lohan - Edge of Seventeen

Yes, you read that right. I like a song that's sung by Lindsay Lohan. Admittedly, this is a cover. But hey, I'm a sucker for covers, and it might be the effects/background stuff that's making me prefer this track to the Stevie Nicks version. And yes, I bought her album when it came out in '05.

day 15 - a song that describes you

Stornoway - We Are The Battery Human

What can I say? Read the lyrics:

Where are we goin' this fine morning? What are we doin' this fine day? We're doin' the same as ev'ry morning!

We're stayin' inside on this fine morning. Stayin' inside on this fine day. We'll stare at a screen, like ev'ry morning.

And outside the window, spring is here, And we're gonna hibernate all year. Under a pile of A4 snowflakes.

Cause we're the new generation, generation! We are the battery human! But we were born to be free range.

We've got the whole world at our fingers.We've got the whole world in our hands. We get the blues as we grow richer.

Cause we need to fix out loose connection. Out in natural World Wide Web. Where humans evolved in three-dimention.

We were tuned in by natural selection. And we need to go online each day. But inside we don't get no reception.

...

day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate

Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are

Overplayed and over-commercialised. Don't get me wrong - it was a good song when it came out. But my flatmates and the radio killed it, because now, I'm sick of this song. Like boybands, if something gets over-commercialised, I'll shun it.

day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio

Dr Dre feat. Skylar Grey and Eminem - I Need A Doctor

Seems like every time I tune in to Radio 1, I'll hear this track. Getting sick of this one as well, now - used to champion this track, but not anymore...

day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio

Imogen Heap - Just For Now

This is a tough one, since most of the songs I've heard are already on the radio (or were). I guess, if I must, it'll be someone underplayed, like Imogen Heap. And since I picked her, might as well pick my favourite Heap track!

day 19 - a song from your favorite album

Coldplay - Life In Technicolor

Viva La Vida is the album in question, of course. Featured the chirpy "Life In Technicolor" as the opening instrumental (version ii was in the Prospekt's March EP). That track is then followed up by Lost! (there's a version with Jay-Z on the EP), Lovers in Japan, Viva La Vida, Violet Hill (the first single from this album - I didn't like it, to be honest) and Strawberry Swing, along with other tracks (that I'm not fond of). Overall, it's an "experiment" album for Coldplay, working with Brian Eno and using inspiration from cathedrals in Spain. An experiment that went well.

day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry

Four Tet - She Just Likes To Fight

The title sounds violent, but once you hear the cowbells and triangles providing the tempo to a cheerful melody, you'd be calmed right down.

day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy

Bombay Bicycle Club - Ivy & Gold

A song for the early morning weekend when you have nothing to do. Happy times!

day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad

Temper Trap - A Love Was Lost

Doesn't matter if it's a break-up or anything that made me upset, this is the song that, somehow, perks me up.

day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding

James Blunt - I'll Be Your Man

A cheesy love song. Fine by me!

day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral

The Killers - All These Things That I've Done

Probably not appropriate for the mood, but hey, if I could do anything I want, I'd rather leave with a bang than a hum.

day 25 - a song that makes you laugh

Chris Moyles - Waterproofs

It's a parody of "Bulletproof" by La Roux. Normally, I wouldn't put parodies in these sort of things, but hey, this parody is on an album, and it's relevant to me. If I'm going outdoors, I need waterproofs!

day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument

Coldplay - Viva La Vida

Badly, on a guitar.

day 27 - a song that you wish you could play

Ellie Goulding - Your Song

on a piano - then again, I can't play the piano. Thanks a lot, mum.

day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty

Mark Ronson & The Business Intl - Somebody To Love Me

Reminds me of what I'm so often guilty of doing - self-pity.

day 29 - a song from your childhood

Michael Jackson - Earth Song

I remember that at that time, I barely knew a word of English, but I liked watching music videos when they came up on TV, and this was one that I remember from that time - possibly the most memorable and impactful music video for me at that time & age.

day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year

White Rabbits - Percussion Guns

Looking back at my Spotify Playlist from Spring 2010, this was one that I was hooked on from that time. Upbeat, regularly used in adverts, and not overplayed on the airwaves - so it's got to be good. It's not something you'd play often (not that you'd want to), but when your shuffled playlist comes to this track, it'll get your adrenaline pumping.

xxxo

How did so much go so wrong so fast...

2011-03-26T04:38:00.000Z

Ah, yes, I'm back to the land of the silent but vocal - the blogosphere.

With hindsight, this is in fact the first post of 2011 on my Blogger blog - those of you who subscribe to my Wordpress blog would have seen my "secret"post, in which I said I'd post weekly. That's obviously now a lie, a hoax, an ambitious but forgotten target.

Anyway, forget that - I'm typing this post as a post-moterm to the 2 election losses that I've recently suffered - the first, from IntSoc General Secretary, and the second, from ISC General Secretary (let me clarify, in case you haven't noticed by now, ISC ≠ IntSoc, they're 2 different things, with different core functions. IntSoc organises events and socials for International Students, ISC provides support and signposting for International Students - but one overlap would be that both speaks up and galvanises International Students, though arguably, the ISC is has a greater obligation to represent International Students more so than IntSoc, especially to the Guild.

Having made the taxonomy quite clear, I'll just say this first - it's definitely been fun running in these elections. Ultimately, it was a chance for me to embolden myself - to remind myself of why I'm a strong, credible, and viable candidate that's suitable for a position of responsibility in a major Society or Council. Tech-savviness, promptness,

It was also a chance to find out where my weaknesses are relative to my fellow candidates. And boy, have I learnt many in the 2 elections that I failed to win.

I now know that my connections are way underdeveloped compared to my counterparts. Having been in Exeter for only 7 months, and constantly chatting with people whom I already know (i.e.: flatmates, a few coursemates) and not daring to break the ice with other people whom I meet (in the numerous societies that I join, on my course), I feel like I could have made much more effort to actually get out of the comfort zone and widen my social circle. Perhaps the "Freshers' Week" atmosphere sort of vanishes towards the middle of the 2nd term, so it is harder to break that shell, but perhaps I'm just making defensive excuses for myself now.

I now know that I lack the confidence and interpersonal skills to break the shell, talk to strangers and sell myself to them. I lack the "self-marketing" skills, that's what I'd call it. No, wait. I lack the self-confidence.

I now know that policies, ideas and polished presentation isn't everything. Doesn't matter how much effort I put in into something, if people don't know about it, or if they are committed to support a friend whom you are competing against, they wouldn't vote for you, would they?

I now know not to annoy people. Spam-gate could have cost me a few votes and a few friends - it didn't help that I kept telling the same 110 people to vote for me repeatedly. If you have been affected by my constant self-promotion on Facebook, my deepest, most sincere apologies. What I did was inconsiderate and inappropriate; it was cyber-bullying to a certain extent.

I now know that distance matters. Not distance from my flat to the main campus. No. That's just an excuse. I mean distance of communication. I met a few friends who knew I was running for the ISC elections, but they did not know how to vote, so they didn't vote. Had I spent time going up to them and asking them if they had voted, I would have known that they didn't know how, and I could explain how - obviously, a video on Facebook would not help if they don't use Facebook.

I now know that I need to respect others and cherish any relations that I've established with others. I know these people aren't reading my blog, but right now, I just want to apologise to so many people right now. To Kami, Waew-wow, Bella and Ryuji, when we did the Business competition, I know my ego might have gotten in the way and I might have been pushy at times. The same could be said during the Management Project with Bryoni, Adrian, Jessica and Jean. I often try to push to get my point of view across and accepted by everyone, even if it's not the best one. Also, to the Rowing team, I should have explained why I went AWOL - I could have handled that better. I left Rowing because I know that physically, I have a lot of work to do to catch up with the fitness level of all the other members, and I have never worked so hard physically - I have never done any sports in my life before, and going from no sports to a rower is a mountain to climb. I know that this is a weak excuse, but I genuinely felt that I couldn't handle the demanding nature of the Rowing training regime. I simply couldn't cope. I have nothing but respect and, if anything, admiration to those in EUBC. I'm sorry I couldn't bring myself up to the same level as everyone else - I'm aware that I've been posting the slowest time on the Ergs.

I now know that I should get others involved. Looking back at my election campaigns, I think the fact that I ran with Aimi for the IntSoc elections might have boosted my chances slightly, albeit not enough to win. Looking back at Joshua's election campaign for Exeposé Photographer, I think it was good to have a second, and maybe a third opinion, before you actually get judged by your jury (i.e.: voters). Looking back at my ISC election campaign, I relied upon myself to get people to vote for me - I designed and pasted my own poster, made my own facebook group, added my own friends (Damia, I know you added 3 people - I really appreciated that!), shot my own videos, made my own manifesto - but I forgot to ask for a second opinion. I forgot to ask what others thought of things. I forgot to get others involved in this process. I forgot I had access to help if I needed it.

I now know that I need to commit to whatever I sign up for if I want to progress in that society. I signed up for too many things in Freshers Week, and I only stuck to EUBC for the first term, Choral Soc in the second term, Xpression FM for Production Training, PhotoSoc in 2nd term as Paula tried to kickstart things again, IntSoc late in the year as I got involved for the Business Competition and IntSoc elections, BeSoc for a number of events only. Bottom line - I was a non-commital member of so many societies, and that wouldn't help me progress in a society and gain committee positions.

Looking back, I need to narrow down my commitments and focus on the ones that I'm interested in.

I want to get more involved in Xpression FM. Need to get on Presenter training.
I will continue as a committee member in PhotoSoc. Although I'm currently the Technical Secretary, I think I might be more confident with a Treasury position, so I will see if I can run for that post when it becomes available for next year.
I would love to contribute to Exeposé in terms of photography and if I can come up with a good piece, maybe contribute an article or two. (got a photo job next Wednesday, in fact! Thanks to Henry, Hannah and Joshua for the opportunity.).
I'm still undecided on Choral Soc - I enjoy it, but not as much as I used to back in Secondary School, maybe because things go much faster now than it did then.
I'll definitely continue to contribute to IntSoc and ISC when opportunities arise. And I'll try and make myself useful in Singapore Soc & in helping to set up an Indonesian Soc.
And of course, I shouldn't limit myself to campus opportunities - I have been involved very actively with Sound Gallery Studios at the Exeter Phoenix, having done photography work for a radio show, a music competition/recording session and a music expo (evidence: my Flickr Page).

Alright, then. Tired now. Emotional breakdown over. Nite nite!

Dear Etihad,

2010-12-19T22:26:00.001Z

My email to Etihad, sent via their website contact form.

------------------------

Hi,

I had my flight (EY20 on 18 December, LHR to AUH) cancelled, resulting in a missed connection (EY472, 19 December, from AUH to CGK). Consequently, I was asked to find my own accommodation (and hence finance my own expenses over the last few days as a result of the delay/eventual cancellation) in London and ring up your offices to seek a new flight number. After 3 attempts, I finally got through to a member of staff at 11am on 19 December. She took down my e-ticket and phone number, and told me that I would be contacted when a new flight has been confirmed.

After visiting your website, I noticed that most other flights have gotten updates on their rescheduling status. Rather worrying for me was the fact that my flight (EY20, 18 December) was not shown, when flights that were meant to depart later, such as EY18, have been updated.

I got even more furious when I looked up my itinerary, both on Abacus and on your website, and saw that I have been put down for another flight, EY9020, for 29 December, without the AUH-CGK leg - this is by no means acceptable or reasonable, knowing that some flights are leaving tomorrow (20 December).

I have to say that this whole situation has been dealt with rather badly by your airline, considering the scale of Etihad - lack of updates/communication and lack of reimbursement/support for customers (not even those stipulated by Statute under EU Denied Boarding Regulation 261/2004).

I understand that this problem was partially out of your company's control, with the snow and BAA deciding to close Heathrow's runways. Nevertheless, I was hoping for slightly better treatment than what I have gotten thus far from an award-winning airline.

I demand a proper explanation of the status of EY20(18Dec), and a rebooking onto another flight within a reasonable timeframe, even if it means going through Manchester. I am not seeking financial compensation at the moment, just seeking some reasonableness, clarity and a chance to be home with my family in time for Christmas. If necessary, my e-Ticket Number is 607xxxxxx3062.

------------------------

Hopefully, this will inform someone at Etihad that someone is really not satisfied with their service, even for a reasonable person.

Sound of 2010

2010-12-18T10:09:00.000Z

As it's nearing the end of the year, I thought I'd do a round-up of the sounds that, in my opinion, defined the soundscape of the past year. Think of it as a periodic chart summary, put together at the end of the year.

Compiled on a train, using nothing but an iPhone with 3G signal, Spotify, Official Charts Company Website, Wikipedia, and Mail, I bring you...

SOUND OF...
JANUARY
Florence + The Machine
Lungs

Vampire Weekend
Contra

Delphic
Acolyte

FEBRUARY
Owl City
Ocean Eyes

Gorrilaz
Plastic Beach

MARCH
Ellie Goulding
Lights

APRIL
Two Door Cinema Club
Tourist History

MAY
MGMT
Congratulations

B.o.B
B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray

Pendulum
Immersion

JUNE
Stornoway
Beachcomber's Windowsill

Eminem
Recovery

JULY
Bombay Bicycle Club
Flaws

Tom Jones
Praise & Blame

Mike Ronson & The Business International
Record Collection

AUGUST
Katy Perry
Teenage Dream

Bruno Mars
Just The Way You Are

Swedish House Mafia
One

SEPTEMBER
The Script
Science & Faith

Linkin Park
A Thousand Suns

Brandon Flowers
Flamingo

OCTOBER
KT Tunstall
Tiger Suit

Tinie Tempah
Disc-Overy

NOVEMBER
Brian Eno
Small Craft on a Milk Sea

James Blunt
Some Kind of Trouble

McFly
Above The Noise

Rihanna
Loud

Take That
Progress

Kanye West
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

DECEMBER
Deadmau5
4x4=12

Plain White T's
Wonders of the Younger

Coldplay
Christmas Lights

Ellie Goulding
Your Song

Where I stand...

2010-12-10T13:42:00.001Z

Haven't posted anything to this part of the interwebs, so I thought I'd kick up a fuss and spill my opinions over some things that have been in the news.

ON THE EDUCATION CUTS/FEE RISES IN THE UK

So Parliament voted yesterday, and the motion was passed - the cap on English university tuition fees for Home students will rise to £9000. Obviously this does not affect me directy. However, I'm quite shocked that the politicians though higher tuition fees were acceptable. Students from poorer backgrounds might e deterred from Unicersities as they fear the debt that they'd incurr. Yes, a degree improves job prospectus and future salary. But the upfront debt and the interest, on top of the graduate's other debts (mortgage?) plus interest means students in the "squeezed middle" who cannot access scholarships and bursaries are trapped in debt for a large part of their adult life. I understand that they only start paying off the debt once they've earned £21,000. Nevertheless, it's not fair that students who enter university only a few years later have to pay 3X as much as those who entered in 2010. And what does this do to subjects where graduates tend to earn less? The business and medicine students would be paying tier debts faster than the Historian. What does this do to incentives?

Another thing which I learnt from Newsnight was that the government is planning to scrap "top-ups" for so-called "classroom-based" courses (mainly Arts and Humanities) from £2,000 per student to £0. I cannot believe that the government is passing on the burden of higher education funding for what some may call "softer" subjects 100% from the state to the students. Forgive the pun, but at this rate, History is history.

Understandably, these fee rises and top-up cuts are a result of the budget deficit, and the government is trying to close the gap in the budget. But doing so at the expense of social mobility and low-paying subjects is quite selfish and morally wrong. Universities are a place of learning, and regardless of the subject, funding should be done in a fair way. It would be great if the government had an interest in the future of the economy by gettin more students educated to a higher level. But sadly, this will no longer be the case from 2012 onwards.

ON WIKILEAKS

You've probably heard about Cablegate - the leaks of the cables and other classified documents (some of which were not meant for eyes on foreign soil) that were sent from various US embassy staff to DC.

This has been a major setback for US Foreign Policy. It definitely doesn't look good for the Middle Eastern leaders who asked the US to attack Iran. Nor does it help Hillary Clinton with trying to "reset" relations with Russia, after what's wen said about Putin v Medvedev. And what's with the criticism of British forces in Afghanistan?

The US has been on the offence, after forcing companies that provide services to the whistle-blowing website to stop doing so - Amazon (S3), a webhost, Paypal, MasterCard, Visa. The Swedish have also issued an Interpol warrant on Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. Furthermore, a Swiss bank has even closed down Assange's account over "misuse of the account". Maybe it's just a conspiracy, but how much of these are caused by American pressure?

The hackers have also been on the attack, after taking down a number of the sites mentioned above in DDOS attacks (Amazon was attacked, but their servers kept going somehow).

This is going to be a long battle between the authorities, trying to keep their secrets from the eyes of the web, and the supporters of Wikileaks, defending their right to keep the authorities in check. In America's defence, it is probably in the national interest that some of these documents don't get into the public domain. The leak of major sites of American interest probably rang alarm bells with the DoD, as terrorists can now log online to read this document and plan their next target, if they wanted to.

On the one hand, it is admirable that Julian Assange has braved authorities and went ahead with the leaks. Together with the hackers, they represent the online version of (to borrow David Cameron's term) "the Big Society" - the rebels who challenge the "big Government" and uncover their secrets.

On the other hand, did the actions of the Wikileaks team put people, American and non-Americans, at unnecessary risk? Did the leaks have an impact on international relations? Or was Clinton's downplay accurate - "some of our counterparts have told us,"if you thought he leaks were bad, you should see what we say about you."." Was this just an embarrassing gaffe?

I wouldn't go so far as to call Wikileaks a terrorist organisation, as some American politicians have coined them. Yes, they are in illicit and unauthorised possession of classified documents. But perhaps the US Government need to look at what it's done - why the secrets? Why the lack of trust in the international community? Why so hungry for data and secrets? And why are you trying to take down a site that's all about keeping the authorities in check?

Right, that's all I have to say for now.

Coming soon: a music chart!

Sent from my iPhone

Printers.

2010-11-16T13:25:00.001Z

I haven't had a rant about anything on my blog in ages. Heck, I haven't updated my blog in ages. So I thought I'd write up something that's been on my mind recently. Printers.

I've been hunting around for an all-in-one printer for my studies. Yes, the university has very nice laser printers on campus which charges (arguably) reasonable rates (4p per side duplex B&W), and does duplex printing (Save the trees!). But there is a problem - for me to print, I have to send the print job from a University PC. And more often than not, the PCs are all taken up (often with valid reasons, like people finishing up their assignments or a tutorial happening in Streatham Court 0.93). This leads to a lot of time wasted refreshing the "Find a Spare PC on campus" page on my iPhone. As someone who lives off-campus (in Rowancroft), I'd rather have the flexibility of being able to print whenever I need to, rather than having to do it only when I am on campus.

So I thought, forget it, it's time I get my own printer so I can print what I want, when I want, and from the apps that I normally use (IE is hopeless at printing webpages).

Over the last decade, I've gone through 3 different makes of printers - A Canon BJC S200, a Canon Pixma MP220 AIO, and most recently, a Lexmark X4550 Wireless AIO. (Notice the evolution of models there - from a printer, to an all-in-one, to a wireless all-in-one).

Today, while surfing through tons of review sites and Amazon, I saw printers that have web capabilities (The HP Photosmart Premium e-All-In-One particularly caught my attention). How cool would it be if you could send a document by email to your printer, and it will print it off for you? And how about putting apps on your printer? This certainly feel like the future.

Until you stop reading the marketing material, take a step out of the reality distortion field, and look through the reviews of these (if I were honest) pretty expensive printers. (£129 for the Photosmart Premium from Amazon).

These words are probably quite familiar if you've been reading reviews for printers: Difficult to set-up. Driver issues. Poor customer support. Poor printing quality. Super expensive ink. Noisy. Slow.

Mind you, it's 2010, you would have been forgiven for thinking that printer manufacturers have been able to improve the quality of the core functions of the printer (Print, Scan, Copy), while delivering the innovations I mentioned above (web connectivity, wireless printing). And with the environment in mind, you might have expected features like Duplex Printing to be in every make and model today.

Today, consumers are smarter, and they often think about more than just the price of the printer. They think about the running cost (or cost per page), additional features it has to offer, and the quality of the prints. Too bad it seems that the manufacturers are rather like politicians - pretending to listen, but in reality, rather out of touch with the picky consumers.

Maybe I'm just being picky and pedantic here. Maybe the manufacturers are finding it hard to shore up profits when people are buying 3rd-party ink cartridges in place of the 'genuine' ones, which affects their bottom line. But as we have seen in the music industry, the consumers will be there, as long as you treat them well by giving them what they want for the right price and in the right way. The printing industry have been innovating by finding ways to prevent the use of 3rd party printer ink cartridges. To them I say: why not use those resources in fixing your own cartridges and products?

Just my pennies' worth...

Apple announcement predictions...

2010-10-20T16:55:00.001+01:00

Nope, this blog is not dead. And yes, I remembered the fact that there's an Apple announcement today. So, predictions, any?

1. MacBook Air - 11", low price (sub-MacBook), SSD, 10h battery, 2 USB ports.

2. iLife '11

3. iWork '11

4. Mac OS X 10.7.

5. Something about MobileMe.

6. iOS4.2

7. iPhone 4 for CDMA?

8. Jobs will speak today.

9. So will Bertrand Serlet.

10. And whoever who's heading the OS X software team now - used to be Forstall, right?

That's all I have. Am I right, or am I wrong? We'll wait and see!

Upgrading your HDD...

2010-09-03T19:15:00.001+01:00

Since I've been doing a HDD upgrade on my MBP recently, and Zexun's about to do the same, I thought I'd share some info to help you if you're thinking of doing the same.

Okay,

Step 1: get a new HDD.

I saw a few shops selling internal 2.5" SATA 7200rpm 500GB HDDs for S$129 in Funan. And I got my Hybrid HDD from Cybermind at Sim Lim for S$199 (NDP Special, though - price may have changed since then).

Either way, just make sure it's:

•2.5",

•SATA, and this is one which people tend to overlook:

•STANDARD THICKNESS (i.e.: 9.5 or 9.7mm thick. Some HDDs are actually 11mm, and those won't fit in MacBooks).

•If you want performance, I'd recommend a 7200rpm drive.

Step 2: clone your current HDD.

Make a bootable duplicate of your current hard drive's content. You may need:

•a Hard Drive enclosure (recommended if you're busy)

•or a spare external HDD if you have one (would be a two-step process, though).

You'll also need one of these apps:

•SuperDuper! ( http://www.shirt-pocket.com/superduper ) or

•CarbonCopyCloner ( http://www.bombich.com ).

Now, the tricky bit: I used CCC to duplicate my Hard Drives. Tried to start up the Adobe apps, but to no avail. Anyway, I contacted Adobe Support, and they basically said:

"Ronald, it seems that Illustrator has not been copied properly during the cloning. I would request you to un-install Illustrator and re-install from the original media. For that:

1. Navigate to application>utilities>Adobe installers

2. Lunch (sic) the un-installer for the CS4 suite.

3. Then select Illustrator from the list to un-install.

4. Then re-install from original media."

Now, I have not tried this yet, since I'm in Jakarta, and my Adobe discs are in the UK. If you want, you could try first and let me know how it goes. But whatever you do, I suggest you keep your old drive with the data on it first - don't format it clean yet, so in case the upgrade doesn't work, you still have something to work with.

One more thing that I just remembered: Alternatively,

Step 2, Method B

If you use Time Machine, you can "restore" from an old "backup". You need:

•Your current HDD

•Your new internal HDD

•A Time Machine backup drive, with backups.

•Your Mac OS X Snow Leopard (or Leopard, if you're on Leopard) DVD

Here's how:

1. Do one last backup before you move to the new Hard Drive. Then shut down your laptop.

2. Take out the old internal drive, swap in the new one.

3. Insert your (Snow) Leopard DVD and plug your external HDD back in - the one with the Time Machine backup.

4. Boot from your DVD - Just press the power button, press and hold the "Alt" key, and select the DVD icon when it loads up.

5. Format the new hard drive. (Should be Mac OS Extended Journaled, CMIIW.)

6. Select "Utilities>Restore System from Backup..."

7. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Link: http://blog.duncandavidson.com/2008/01/restoring-from-time-machine.html

Apparently, Method B will help keep Adobe apps useable, somehow.

Hope that's been clear and helpful at the same time!

So, how did the Announcement Predictions pan out?

2010-09-01T20:46:00.001+01:00

Well, let's see...

1. Apple will announce a new iPod nano - square screen, camera on the back.
2. Apple will announce a new iPod touch with camera(s) for FaceTime.
3. Apple might announce an iPod touch with 3G, much like an iPad 3G.
4. Apple will announce an update to iLife.
5. Apple will announce an updated Apple TV. May be called iTV everywhere except the UK, due to trademark reasons.
6. Apple will announce the end of the Shuffle.
7. Apple will make the iPod classic thinner &// with greater capacity &// SSD &// cheaper / discontinued / the same. Could go any of the abovementioned ways.
8. Apple will talk about iOS 4 for iPad.
9. Steve Jobs will make the announcements.
10. Scott Forstall will also make an appearance.

Looks like I got a few details wrong. Heh.

--------------------

Anyway, I'm quite surprised the boffins at Apple left the iPod classic unchanged - it's been in the current design since 2007, and the current model has been around for a year. I think this could be a sign of a maturing product being pushed to a slower upgrade cycle, much like iLife, Final Cut, and OS X.

----------

Since we're still on the subject of the Apple announcements, I thought I'd give my early impressions of the products Steve announced.

----------

The iPod Shuffle.

Good move on Apple's part - they realised that people can go too far in their desire to get rid of buttons, and people would move away from your products. Apple bit the bullet and reinstated buttons back to their rightful place - on the face of an iPod Shuffle. Longer battery life, colours, you know what? This is an upgrade. Sure, it still doesn't have a USB connection - you're still stuck with the 3.5mm-to-USB cable/dock. But hey, it's Apple. What were you expecting?

----------

The iPod nano.

Ding dong, the Click Wheel is dead as we know it (well, it's still on the iPod Classic, but we all know that's not going to last forever, right?). The removal of the Click wheel marks the descent of this "Apple" idea (there's some debate as to what extent Apple can be credited for the click wheel, since it is just a mouse trackpad made circular.). But we now see Multitouch take the reign as Apple's favourite modus operandi when it comes to using their products. Gone are the days of forming donut rings with your thumb as you scroll through playlists - you now scroll by thumbing on a glass screen.

I do have a few negatives to point out about the iPod nano. Firstly, this new model is a step back from the previous in the sense that two of its features - the video camera + the ability to play videos - have been taken out. This might be because the screen is now smaller. But mind you, the price has been kept the same as with the previous models. So, this is a bit of an improvement on a UI and design front, but a step back in the sense that this thing doesn't do anything video-related.

Also, I'd love to see someone actually use this with their fingers, because this thing looks quite small. I foresee problems with people trying to rotate the screen with two fingers - especially if you're quite burly.

----------

The iPod Touch.

I think a lot of people had forseen the updates that were coming to the iPod touch, thanks to the iPhone 4. Retina Screen, Gyro, Facetime, Video camera (no flash?), Apple A4 chip, that sort of stuff. I'm impressed that they could make it thinner, while still packing the cameras.

I find it a bit odd that Apple chose to go with having 8, 32 and 64GB models (where's 16GB?). I'm guessing they wanted an iPod touch model that they could price as close to the iPod nano as possible (8GB touch = US$229, 16GB nano = US$179), and preferably lower than the iPod classic (160GB = US$249). Or it could be an Apple effort to upsell people to the 32GB model - pay only US$70, and you get 4x the capacity! Now that seems like a bargain, doesn't it?

But anyway, as Steve said, this is a very popular product, and I'm sure they'll shift even more iPod touches as time goes by...

----------

The Apple TV.

This would be Take 3 for Apple - attempt numero tiga in trying to get an Apple-branded set-top box in the living rooms of consumers. It's made steps in the right directions - cheaper and simpler. No more computers involved now - it's all clouds and streaming from here on end. It's a pity Apple couldn't get everyone to agree that US$0.99 is the magic price people are willing to spend on renting TV shows, but I do hope this thing works out, and other studios start to see the positives about delivering content at cheap prices.

The Apple TV still does what the old one does - put your media on your big screen. The difference is that now, with no hard drive, the device is cheaper, smaller, and easier to manage - no more worrying about limited capacity. Everything's streaming now. That sounds great, except for the fact that I probably represent most consumers who have to face crappy internet service providers who aren't too happy about me streaming HD content onto my TV, instead of subscribing to their Cable TV+Internet bundles. With the war on bandwidth that's going on in many countries, I wonder how many people would actually consider buying this device.

----------

iOS 4.1/4.2.

Three things -

(a) Why must they release 2 updates, and not just one with all the things people want? Splitting the updates will just annoy people, because it means having to download 300 MB of software TWICE - once next week, once more in November. And don't get me started about iTunes updates (see below).

(b) What took them so bloody long to get iOS4 onto the iPad?

----------

iTunes 10.

Let's start with the biggest issue I have with iTunes 10 - Ping is a stupid name, period. But what it does, though, is brilliant. I've always thought that Apple is probably the only company which can start a music-based social network and make it stick. Yes, there's this thing called Last.fm. But think about the number of iTunes users relative to Last.fm users. And think about Apple's position in the music retail industry - they are the number one music retailer in the US, and probably the world, too. Surely, if Apple tries to set up a music-focused Facebook, it's probably not that hard to get a large number of users on board quickly and develop an ecosystem.

I'm worried not for Apple, though. I'm worried about what this would do to Last.fm and Myspace, the current places for connecting with fellow music listeners and musicians respectively. Would iTunes shadow these sites? I think possibly. I love Myspace for its ability to help indie artistes get themselves promoted, and I hate to see them quashed by iTunes Ping's popularity and (knowing Apple,) closed-doors policy.

--------------------

Well then, I guess we'll have to wait and see if my critiques are spot-on or just chatter.

Oh, wait one more thing:

AirPlay - on the iPad.

One word: Awesome!

updates to my bucket list...

2010-08-30T05:32:00.001+01:00

I've added a few items to my bucket list - think of it as my long-term "New Year's Resolution":

•Learn a new language.
I've been thinking - I know English, I know Chinese, and I know Bahasa Melayu/Indonesia. And since Bahasa is based on a latin pronunciation, how hard can it be for me to learn an additional language, like Spanish, or Italian? Then again, what's stopping me from learning German? or French?

•Visit Nuremberg.
Home of the Nurbergring, and apparently, there's a nice Christmas Market there, too. I love the European Christmas markets, and since I'm actually in Europe, I might as well go and check this one out.

•and Berlin.
•and France.
Never been to France. and I want to check out the German capital on one of my one-man Lonely Planet tours...

•and a Spanish-speaking country.
Spain? a Latin-American country? Ibiza (technically not a country, but still...)?

•Go to a music festival.
And I'm talking about one of those major festivals - Glastonbury, V Festival, Download Festival, BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend, or even iTunes Festival.

Oh, and I've also taken one item off the list:
•Go to Antarctica.
heh. Didn't really think it through when I put this in the list in the first place.

family issues...

2010-08-22T15:58:00.001+01:00

I've just been thinking...

I have something like an 11 or 12 years age gap between me and my brothers.

And I have a 36 and 40 years age gap with my mum and dad respectively.

And add to that, the fact that I only see them for only 1 to 3 months a year for the last decade.

It's no wonder I'm not getting along so well with anyone in my family. I mean, there's always miscommunication.

Case-in-point:

My dad doesn't seem to know when I'm asking a question or making a statement. And he seems to think I'm an idiot. Probably because I do tend to act quite clumsily in front of him.

My mum has no understanding of the world, and talking to her is like talking to a granny with amnesia - they forgot what year it is, and hence, they think you're 6, even if you are 18. And she doesn't trust me at all when it comes to driving. Even though I did drive in the dark with no street lights from Jakarta to Sukabumi along the smaller roads, and even though I "chauffeur" my bro when he goes out with his gf.

My eldest bro and I are fine, since we do share quite a lot of interests - music, tech, cars. Just that his jokes can get annoying. And that he's a married man with his own house and family, so I don't really chat with him that much.

My 2nd bro just ignores me because he thinks I'm an attention seeker. And maybe it's because I'm sensitive (I am, actually, quite aware of this), but I feel that he treats me as some sort of a second-rate failed person. Sure, I'm a book-smart guy, whereas he's a street-smart person. And yes, a street-smart person has better survival instinct in Indonesia than a person who just reads the textbooks. But you don't have to bring my ego down to the level of a servant.

And then there's the fact that I can't get my voice heard in a family conversation. Maybe it's my accent (or lack of it). Maybe it's my intonation. Or maybe my language is just too abstruse or esoteric, if not senseless and amateurish. Maybe it's my youth; my naivety; my ignorance; my lack of knowledge; my (perceived) stupidity; my attention-seeking tendency; my strange humour; whatever. I just wished that what I say don't fall to deaf ears. I just wished they get picked up by someone and debated about when there's a conversation. And don't say it's rude - if it's a family conversation, am I not part of the family? Sure, I'm a bit odd compared to everyone else in the family - a misfit. But who cares? Family is family!

Before I end this post, I just wanted to point out something ironic. The people with whom I spend less time with - my eldest bro, my sis-in-law, my bro's girlfriend - seem to be more attentive to me than everyone else in the family.

Sorry, just had to blurp that out - can't suppress my family issues any longer.

Check your fridge. And your cabinets.

2010-08-22T15:25:00.001+01:00

This is one of my public service announcements. Normally, when I make one of these things, it's tech related. But this time, it's more food & safety related.

Check your fridge. Check your cabinets. Check the quality of the stuff that you have - have they gone bad / expired? What about your sauces? Fruits and vegetables? Poultry / dairy products? Anything dodgy that you think should be thrown out, like that coffee grind that expired 4 years ago? Or chocolate that you bought from that trip to Belgium 2 years ago? Or that piece of chocolate that's like an elephant in your fridge (i.e.: nobody seems to take any notice of it)?

Genuinely, I found these from my parents' cabinets and fridge:

HP Barbacue Sauce, expired 2009

A1 Barbacue sauce, also expired 2009

Butter, expired May 2010 - already, there's mould forming.

Cocoa Crunch Breakfast cereal, expired May 2010.

A jar of Skippy peanut butter, only used once, and with an expiry date of 25 August 2010 (3 days from the time of post)

"illy" Coffee grind, expired 2006.

Olive Oil and Rosemary vinegar that I bought from Italy in 2007, expired in the last one year.

Milk, expired 3 days ago. Oh wait, I ate Honey Stars with milk this morning...

Conclusion:

Check your cabinets and fridges.

Just because it has preservatives, doesn't mean it will definitely last longer than you.

Updates...

2010-08-07T17:15:00.001+01:00

Sunday, 8 Aug:

Morning: Help parents pack - they leave for Jakarta around noon. Might meet with Zachary Foo. (Yeah, not going to shoot the YOG stuff - seems like security's going to be tight, and I doubt I can get up early enough)

Afternoon: I was planning on going to Toa Payoh to get some stuff that my sis-in-law requested (Chinese Workbooks for her kids/my nephews). If I have time thereafter, I'd go to City Hall to (possibly) buy 2 much-needed new HDDs - both internal and external.

Evening: Nothing planned - may go to Sands to check it out.

Monday, 9 Aug:

Morning: I'd probably be a bit desperate for clothes (think I didn't pack enough)

Afternoon: Forgot if I had anything on.

Evening: Apparently, Vermonster Challenge.

Tuesday, 10 Aug:

Morning: B'fast, pack

Afternoon: Check out, Transfer stuff to Emmy's, then possibly tea with Daniel & Miss Gan (tbc).

Evening: Fly-bye!

Plans...

2010-08-05T17:39:00.001+01:00

Ok, here's the plan (I marked my empty spots in my diary with green):

Friday, 6 Aug

Morning: My dad has an appointment at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, so I'll bring them there first (after breakfast). I'll get a mobile number after that, and then leave for SAV. Meet up with oh-I-don't-really-know-who'll-be-there-because-everyone's-a-bit-busy.

Afternoon: If nobody's around, I'd probably get down to clearing the list of items to get for my nephews and my bro.

Evening: Dinner, probably with parents.

Saturday, 7 Aug:

Morning: Breakfast with the folks, then I'm thinking maybe go around City Hall...

Afternoon: City Hall cont'd

Evening: Dinner around City Hall (tbc)

Sunday, 8 Aug:

Morning: Thinking of shooting the YOG Torchbearing (if I'm allowed)

Afternoon: My parents are going back to Jakarta, but I'll still be in SG - alone!

Evening: Oh, whatever.

Monday, 9 Aug:

Morning: whatever

Afternoon-Evening: Thinking of finding a good spot to shoot NDP-stuff.

Tuesday, 10 Aug:

Morning: B'fast, pack

Afternoon: Check out, Leave for airport.

Redenomination.

2010-08-04T06:16:00.001+01:00

Gone are the days when you could point to something worthless and say "That thing's only worth one Rupiah". Well, it will disappear over the next ten years.

WHY IS THAT SO?

Bank Indonesia, the central bank of Indonesia, has recently announced plans for redenomination of the Rupiah - in other words, to erase off the last two or three (probably 3) zeroes on the currency over the next 5-10 years. The main reason for doing so is because lots of transactions today involve a lot of zeroes - buying a house cost literally billions of rupiah. Computers don't work well with too many zeroes. To improve efficiency when working with spreadsheets, and to bring the Rupiah closer in line with its ASEAN counterparts, the Bank sees a rationale for chopping off the zeroes in the Rupiah.

HOW?

As you can imagine, redenomination might be a complicated process which will take some time - 5 to 10 years, if approved by the House of Representatives. According to the Bank Indonesia Governor Darmin Nasution, it would be carried out in 4 phases:

Phase 1: 2011-2012:

Information campaign to alert the public.

Phase 2: 2013-2015:

Transition Phase, in which the country will have 2 notes in circulation - the 'Old' Rupiah and the 'New Rupiah'. All prices will have to show prices in 'Old' and 'New' Rupiah. Transactions can be carried out in either currencies.

Phase 3: 2016-2018:

Gradual Withdrawal of the 'Old Rupiah'.

Phase 4: 2019-2020:

Completion of Transition - 'Old' Rupiah will be completely out of circulation, 'New' Rupiah will be printed without the 'New' word.

YOU MEAN THEY'VE ONLY THOUGHT OF DOING THIS NOW?

Not exactly. Past governors have tried to manipulate both the money supply and the exchange rate in desperate attempts to maintain the value of the Rupiah. In the 60 years of existence, the currency has been affected by inflation, financial crises, as well as political instability. In fact, rampant Inflation in the 1960s (up to 600% in 1965) lead to revaluation of the currency and the introduction of a 'new' Rupiah at a rate of Rp 1 (new) = Rp 1000 (old). In other words, we have been hiding 3 zeroes from our currency all these years.

Arguably, the reason past currency revaluations didn't really work was because of people's sentiments at the time when the moves were carried out. In the 1965 revaluation of the Rupiah, goods prices did not drop in line with the currency revaluation - they rose in real terms. People just weren't as confident. Now, though, the economy is much more robust, inflation is much lower from the 600% of that time (albeit still a bit high at 5.5% CPI Y-o-Y). And because the money printing is done by the Central Bank, not the government, there is less risk of printing money to reduce the real value of debts.

SO...

I guess that's it, then. No more of those "I ran out of Rp200 coins for your change, so here's some sweets instead".

No more "That piece of stuff is only worth Rp1, not $1".

No more "I gave the money changer US$100*, now I'm a millionaire!".

Well, no more after the next decade. So, take the mick out of our currency, while you still can. Because come 2020, Rp1 might be worth US$0.11 or S$0.15, subject to exchange rate fluctuations.

*- US$111.95 = Rp 1.000.000,- as of time of posting. So, actually, that statement is no longer valid - you need US$12 more.

Forget S.o.a.P., Here's C.o.a.T.!

2010-08-01T18:09:00.000+01:00

NOT from the people who brought you "Snakes on a Plane", here's "Cockroach on a Toilet-roll"!

Characters:

-Ronald

-Cockroach

Setting:

Ronald's toilet, First day of August 2010, Close to midnight.

Plot:

Ronald walks into the toilet because he needed a wee; sees Cockroach on the toilet roll.

Ronald: Wha...? (slightly surprised, but still composed.)
Cockroach: OMG!

Startled, Cockroach was on all six feet, wriggling frantically in random directions on the toilet paper before finally hiding in the tube section of the toilet paper.

Ronald ignored the Cockroach momentarily. Still somewhat shell-shocked, he unzipped and carried on with what he wanted to do, whilst devising a plan to get rid of Cockroach.

After flushing the toilet, Ronald left the toilet, grabbed his worn socks, put (only) one on his right hand, and with a belt on his left hand just in case, went in again, prepared to bring Cockroach to its untimely end.

Ronald carefully removed the toilet roll from its holder, saw Cockroach's antennas twitch slightly.

Ronald: Easy does it, now...
Cockroach: Whoa, this thing's tilting. I better make a move.

Cockroach moved, Ronald drops toilet roll on floor.

Cockroach: Oh crap, it's that guy again!

Ronald: Mr/Mrs Cockroach, we meet again! (Best done in a Russian spy accent)

Clearly, Ronald didn't know what was Cockroach's gender. Anyway, Cockroach ran as fast as it could away from the toilet roll, Ronald instantly smacked his right hands (still with the socks on) over the cockroach.

Ronald: Gotcha.
Cockroach: Ouch.

Ron lifts the cockroach, clenched in his right fist, and tosses it in the toilet bowl. Cockroach is flushed away.

Ronald: Goodbye!

Ron removes socks, now with yellow stains on it, into the washing bin.

... The End ...

(Or to be continued, if this story gets picked up by a major studio. Or if something else enters Ronald's toilet. Or if Ronald gets a 'kick', in which case,)

Ronald wakes up in reality. Someone has gone into his subconscious with a spy cockroach and extracted valuable information from Ronald's toilet and the drainage system underneath it. Now, Ronald wants to fix the leak. He must find out who the person was, and silence him/her by returning the favour to gain leverage.

(Thanks to Zexun for 'catalysing' the "Inception" idea.)

No longer in Beta.

2010-07-29T20:51:00.000+01:00

Yes, the blog's out of the woods. Just 2 weeks after the redesign, da ron files is back from beta and in its full glory.

A couple of notes I wanted to add:

Firstly, I don't think it's worth the time digging through 1,174 posts. There's just too many posts to go through, I cannot be bothered to do something that will only benefit 1, if any, viewer out there. It's just not worth my effort. So, what I've done is to tag approximately the last 100 posts.

Secondly, I have to admit, I'm not very good at "retrofitting tags", so it's not exactly a brilliant job, if I were honest, but I'm quite happy to see that at least I do have a proper tag cloud, with tags of different sizes representing the number of posts with that given tag. So, I hope that as I blog more often, the cloud would change in different ways.

Thirdly, the load times is around 24s on my iPhone and iPad (on a DSL connection). It's 6-12 seconds on my Mac (cache not cleared). That's in comparison to Mr Stanley Ho's 4-10s (same conditions - cached). So, yes, I admit, my blog is not the most streamlined it can be. I've come to the conclusion that it's due to the way Blogger loads the elements - it tends to load 3rd-party elements (e.g.: the last.fm image in the sidebar) at a slower rate than their main elements - the posts, for example. I think this problem would be solved if I were to switch to a blogskin rather than the stock Blogger template. But since I just changed to a new layout, I thought you wouldn't mind waiting a bit longer to access my blog. I promise you, the next time I make a change to the blog design, I'll make sure it's a speedier experience. But for now, do bear with the slowdown. Or just use Facebook/RSS/Safari Reader.

K. That's all for now!

On the subject of music...

2010-07-29T18:28:00.000+01:00

I did a full review of an album on the TSR (The Student Room) forum not too long ago, and since I haven't posted an album review in a while, I thought why let this go to waste? So here is a direct copy-paste of that forum posting.

----------------------

Alright, I'll be doing a review on an album that I've been listening for weeks - i.e.: it's past the "honeymoon phase", if you know what I mean. It's the first album from Oxford-based Stornoway, and it's Beachcomber's Windowsill.

Myspace

Band name: Stornoway

Album name: Beachcomber's Windowsill

Genre: Indie Folk-Pop (I think.)

I first learnt about this band while listening to Radio1. It was probably a warm spring day when I first heard I Saw You Blink. I loved the track instantly - it has a playful and catchy bassline, and it's "smile-inducing", somehow (Perhaps it's the lyrics).

Zorbing was another track that the Radio DJs constantly played - one that resonates with me, with its jovial lyrics and musical arrangements. And because of these two tracks, I thought I'd pre-order their album for kicks.

Now that I've had weeks to listen to the album, I think some of the songs have grown on me, while other tracks just don't seem to stick in my ears. The End Of The Movie, when I first heard it, was a brilliant and moving track - I thought it should be used for the end credits of all romance movie (not that I watch them, but still...). Now, though, it seems that listener's fatigue has taken away some of that 'magic' for me. Don't get me wrong - I still think the track is brilliant, it's just that the track is never meant to be played over and over again; just meant to be 'appreciated' like Brian Eno's "An Ending". So, fortunately but sadly, this is one of those tracks that would not hit Playlist A or the charts of any radio station.

On the upside, I can (embarrassingly) relate to the lyrics in We Are The Battery Human, and because of that, it's become some sort of an anthem for me. In other words, I love it just for being a fun, light-hearted "ode to the geeks".

Aside from the above-mentioned tracks, I also like Fuel Up, Here Comes The Blackout...! and Boats And Trains. As for the other tracks, well, let's just say I don't like them as much.

To sum up, I'd describe the album as a gentle, laid-back auditory boat-ride. Stornoway is a chirpier, less intense version of Mumford and Sons, IMO. Don't get me wrong - they have very little in common (aside from the instruments and style). But I just love their album for that lazy weekend afternoon, or when I just want to be reminded of what spring feels like again. It's not perfect - some of the tracks, I found to be quite annoying. For example: Long Distance Lullaby and On The Rocks - were they trying to be ironic with the guitar track and drums, or what? But aside from these, I do think this album is a strong start for an indie band's first full album. I think this band has great potential, and I'd certainly look forward to what this band has to offer in future.

Rating: 7.5/10

First review on TSR. Hope it wasn't too bad!

music chart for the moment

2010-07-29T17:34:00.001+01:00

this is way overdue. But better late than never!

Music chart for the moment - 29 July 2010

1/ Closer to the Edge

30 Seconds To Mars

This is War

2/ Love The Way You Lie

Eminem feat. Rihanna

Recovery

3/ Devil's Spoke / Sneh Ko Marg

Mumford & Sons, Laura Marling & Dharohar Project

Mumford & Sons, Laura Marling & Dharohar Project

4/ Witchcraft

Pendulum

Immersion

5/ Kickstarts

Example

Won't Go Quietly

6/ Ivy & Gold

Bombay Bicycle Club

Flaws

7/ Prayin'

Plan B

The Defamation of Strickland Banks

8/ One

Swedish House Mafia feat. Pharrell

One [Single]

9/ Selfmachine

I Blame Coco

Selfmachine [Single]

10/ Airplanes, Part II

B.o.B. feat. Eminem & Hayley Williams of Paramore

B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray

Bubbling Under/ Captains Of The Sky

Sky Sailing (aka Adam Young of Owl City)

An Airplane Carried Me To Bed

There you go! Another music chart!

--------------------------------------------------

By the way, in case you were wondering how I look for songs to put into my chart, well, I'm going to let you in on a secret.

As you may know, I've been using things like Spotify and the Radio 1 Top 40 Chart [Link] to find out what's hot on the sales front, and test it out.

But recently, I've been using the BBC Radio 1 Playlists [Link] to look out for popular songs that are being hammered across the airwaves on BBC Radio 1. Some of these tracks may have appeared on my charts before - at the time of posting, there's "The Writer" by Ellie Goulding and "Islands" by The xx, for example. But aside from those that have been released in albums before, it does have new tracks, including some upcoming ones. If you're a new-music fan, then this site might be a good link to hit up.

Alright, then. Happy music-listening!

Plan to fail, fail to plan.

2010-07-28T07:55:00.001+01:00

Quote from a poster that I used to see in SAJS there.

I thought I'd share what my diary looks like over the next few weeks/months...

Of course, all these are tentative and subject to changes. That goes without saying, right?

Right, then. [btw, if the spacing between lines and my spelling looks wrong, blame it on the fact that I'm not on my usual keyboard - I'm using my bro's office PC, and it feels a bit weird to type on, plus Firefox on his PC behaves a bit funny - when I press the 'enter' (or 'return') key, the cursor doesn't follow.]

I'm still discussing my Singapore get-away trip with my parents, but if they're are fine with the plan, then I'll be visiting SG 5th to 10th August 2010. My parents will be coming along from 5th to 8th (because they think I'm 6, in spite of the fact that I did book and stay in a hotel alone when I went to Birmingham and Manchester), after which I'll be on my own to do whatever I want to do.

That's assuming I can get my Japanese Visa in time, because apparently, due to timing and availability reasons, our family decided not to go to the States this Lebaran. Instead, we'd be bound for Japan and Hong Kong. I was kinda upset - that means I can't cross anything out from my Bucket List yet. But nevertheless, I'd still try to apply for my US Visa on 25 August - that's when my appointment with the US Consulate staff is due.

Aside from that, I also have to apply for my UK Tier 4 Student Visa. Submitted the online application form, and call me kiasu, but I've even booked an appointment for 30 August. This is in spite of the fact that I am still lacking one crucial document (amongst others) - the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) letter number. That's not supposed to come out till the University has made their offer to me Unconditional Firm, and that can't happen until my results are out. That'll happen on 19 August. So, between now and then, it's the waiting game.

So, in summary:

5-10 Aug: SG trip (tbc)
19 Aug: A Level Results are out
25 Aug: US Visa Appointment
30 Aug: UK Visa Appointment (tentative, likely to change to an earlier date, since the US embassy does allow us to hold on to our passports while the application is in progress, albeit for emergency reasons only.)

4-15 Sep: Japan/HK trip (rough dates)
25 Sep: Uni Orientation starts.

I wonder...

2010-07-26T09:06:00.000+01:00

what happened to those "group blogs" which were so popular last time?

You know... those blogs that were edited by multiple users. Collaborative projects?

Blogs like the 4SA'08 Class Blog (4saints08.blogspot.com).

Or the 4SB'08 Class blog (forassbee.blogspot.com).

Or maybe the 4SA'09 blog (4saeba.blogspot.com).

How are they now?

Well, see for yourself!

Oh, do look at the tagboard. And maybe, just for fun, post something in the tagboard.

Here comes the blackout!

2010-07-22T16:42:00.001+01:00

Quoting a song from Stornoway there. Did you get that?

Anyway, yes, there's been a major blackout in Jakarta, apparently due to a transformer meltdown. (see Jakarta Post article)

Thank God, my house had its power restored by yesterday night, even though it's in the North. Can't say the same for my bro's family - they live in Muara Karang, which is only ~400m away from where I live (Pantai Indah Kapuk), but they're not getting any power in their house. Well, not till their in-house generator is installed, or the transformer is fixed.

The point is, because of the blackout, my nephews have come to live in the house that I'm in (can't really call this my house - my parents'), which means they have taken over my room, and now I have to bunk in with Ronny, my elder bro.

Yeah, that's what's been going on in my house right now. I lost my room. I so want it back. I want my speakers. I want the TV in my room unplugged (call me weird, but I have this TV in my room that doesn't get plugged in at all, because I don't use it. Reception is terrible.).

Oh, in other news, I've been "working" in my dad's factory. Well, when I say "working", it's more like stoning, since they didn't have much for me to do. But heck, it's work experience - I'm shadowing my bro and my dad while they work.

Anyway, gonna sleep now - getting sleepy.

Oh, btw, to all thee merry Singaporeans, Happy iPad Day in advance!

And one more thing: Bombay Bicycle Club is awesome! Go listen!

Visas...

2010-07-19T06:24:00.000+01:00

Visa application forms. Oh how I love them. Not.

I seriously think visas are just some form of protectionism - people pay money for their application, only to find out they applied too late / didn't have the right supporting documents / can't afford to travel because of the application fees. We probably won't get back the application fees, and they avoid having us people in their country.

This is one form of bureaucracy that has dogged me whenever I want to travel. And it's not like the process is one that makes you feel welcomed in the country you plan to visit, either - you must submit a straight-faced photo of yourself, give them your biometric prints, and miss work/leisure time to wait a lot in a grim embassy office/building (often an office in an apartment, because they're too cheap to make a respectable building), before you can actually show the embassy staff your application form, only to be let known if you passed or failed the "visa acid test".

Nowadays, of course, you can fill in your application form online. But don't be fooled. The process is still not futuristic - you have to search for a PDF file in a website that probably looked modern in the Netscape days, and you have to print the PDF on paper - so much for environmental awareness. Then, you have to remember to bring the printed forms to the embassy. Forget that, even if it's a single page, and you're in deep trouble.

Oh, did I mention you have to book an appointment? Most often, the embassy opens in the most unhappy hours - my appointment with the US embassy, for example, is 7.30AM. And because I live in the North of Jakarta, while the embassy is in the central/South area, I'd have to try and beat the jams. Otherwise, I'd have to come back another day.

Embassies' consular services seem to open for 4 hours a day - 8am to 12am for the UK Visa application centre in Jakarta. I've been wondering why it's only open for such short hours, and why only in the morning, aside from security reasons. I don't know if the postal system have anything to do with the short opening hours, or maybe it's laziness, but who cares - I find it bloody annoying. If they open for more hours (I'm staring at the US embassy folks here), maybe they can serve more people in a day and have less of an appointment backlog that goes into the next century. Oh, maybe hire more staff as well? I know the US is trying to cut their budgets (well, not really, are they?) but I suspect the cost of taking on more staff will be less than the benefit of having more tourists and visitors enter your country.

The whole visa application process kind-of makes you feel second-rate. I understand they do certain things for certain reasons - the funding test is to see if we'll be milking from their benefits system, when we shouldn't be. The biometric scans and photo go into their databases for criminal investigation purposes - I'd want the authorities in the country I'm visiting to know who I am and where to send me if I were to end up in an accident. But sometimes, I wish the process was a bit more human and a bit less bureaucratic.

Oh, by the way, stop asking questions like "Have you done anything that may not characterise you as a person of good nature?". Who, in their right mind, would say "YES I AM A MENACE NOW GIVE ME MY VISA"? (That's not shouting, that's block letters - forms must be filled in in block letters, right?) I mean, come on, I seriously think the IQ level of terrorists are way higher than the person who though up this question. Maybe it's a cold or sleep deprivation that caused that question to go through, but can we not have such things?

On second thought, keep that question there. It certainly brightened my day/night when I read that question, thinking "LOL what if I said YES for eating meat from animals?". All sorts of scenarios of behaviours that may be perceived as 'bad' pop up in my head - stepping on ants, stealing the moon, taking candy from a baby, kiasuism, irrtating people, being lazy, etc. What if someone repents their sins in a visa application form and answered "Yes"? What would the immigration staff do?

Oh darn, maybe I should have answered "Yes"!

Heck. It's just bureaucracy.

Brushing your teeth.

2010-07-16T07:44:00.000+01:00

Having a bit of a sore throat today - probably due to the dinner I had
lat night, and the fact that I didn't brush my teeth.

That got me thinking - brushing your teeth - why is it that I choose
not to do it, even though I know from experience what could happen if
I choose not to do so?

Well, I have a theory about this, so strap in, behavioural economists.

As a teenager (whose parents don't really police me anymore on whether
I brush my teeth or not), I can choose for myself whether I'm brushing
my teeth or not. I know that the cost of not brushing my teeth will be
a sore throat the next day.

However, last night, I chose to ignore the cost, because I didn't
really think about it. Furthermore, I didn't really care at that time,
whether I have a sore throat the next day or not. You could say this
is a case of discounting the future - the future cost of not brushing
is just not significant enough at that time to make me drag myself to
the toilet.

And besides, the tap water in my house smells fishy, which just isn't
right. So in my case, the act of not brushing my teeth, which seems
irrational, is actually rational.

Gosh, I love behavioural economics!

Sent from my iPhone

Say goodbye to the old, hello to the new!

2010-07-15T22:12:00.000+01:00

Say goodbye to the old format...

and hello to the new!

Now, before I move on, I should point out that I'm reviving the "beta" term because the new blog layout is not finished yet. There's a bunch of things I want to do first before I think this blog is in a state that will remain for a long, indeterminate period of time. If you look to the right of this post (there should be a sidebar, unless I moved it), there's a "Things Still Not Done On This Blog" section. As of posting, I have yet to correct the colour and font consistency. I also haven't checked how this site looks in other browsers, especially mobile browsers - I'm quite keen on testing out iPhone compatibility, since most mobile browsers are based on WebKit, anyway.

And as with any update to this blog, I need to maintain that list of defunct blog links.

After all that, I will take off the beta status.

But there's one more thing that I'm hoping to try, assuming I haven't shot myself from trying to change the blog design. That's to tag my blog entries. All, if not, at least just the recent ones. This has been something I've been staying away from, but now that I'm jumping onto the new blog template, I think it makes sense for me to have tags. So, let's see how far I'll go with that one.

Oh, not in the list, but I'm thinking of changing the background - seems like I can't, but once I can find a way to customise that, I'll jump on it. But for now (I hope), bear with / enjoy the bright and cheery, new look!

--Ronald Liong
aka ronfiles

A Grand Perspective helps.

2010-07-06T19:38:00.001+01:00

Not sure if I talked about this Mac App (Yes, Mac) before, but I really think it deserves more spotlight, especially with the recent ordeal that I've been having recently with my Hard Drive.

Basically, I've ran out of space. With all the photos and videos that I've been taking all these years, and the ever-growing collection of TV shows and music, my hard drive has been filled to the brim.

I don't really want to talk about my night with Finder. It was more like a cage match than a walk in the park. But in the end, I won - I clawed back an astounding 25.7 GB - from a measly 50MB. And on my Seagate drive, I clawed back another 23GB.

Getting back so much space wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for my app pick for the moment. It's called GrandPerspective.

Link: http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

I'd say this app is a virtual X-Ray of your Hard Drive. What it does is scan your drive, and then put them in a rectangle chart with hundreds, or thousands, or in my case, millions of smaller rectangle, each representing one file according to its file size relative to other files. What this means is that your large HD videos will pop out more than your small, measly Word Documents. For a guy like me, who really needs to get rid of those embarrassing videos of the family at Christmas or that old Top Gear episode, or maybe wants to find what's been eating my HDD space (maybe a recording of a musical?), this is a useful visualisation tool, especially because it drills down to the lowest subfolder and the hidden folders which the average person wouldn't bother to look (e.g.: the iMovie Events Folder).

You might say this app can be used for art. Maybe to make your next disturbing-looking wallpaper. But regardless, it is a very useful tool for visualising the contents of your hard drive. I know the UI is not exactly glamorous, but it's a useful app, and you might not need it now, but some day, when you're crying because you only have 2MB of space when you need 1GB for an important file that you need to work on, this app might just save you from a tear-jerking night.

Download it! Especially since it's FREE!

Oh, by the way,

2010-07-02T19:15:00.001+01:00

I'm planning on changing the blog skin layout soon. Kinda bored with this whole monochromatic colour scheme and tabbed design.

I'm trying to see if I can actually serve up a different 'UI' for mobile web browsers (i.e.: Android, iPhone and iPad browsers) from the standard PC browser. It might be a huge challenge, but hey, I have time.

Watch this space!

Half-way point, how am I doing?

2010-07-02T17:44:00.002+01:00

Here's a look back at my 2010 New Year's Resolution. Let's see how things are coming along thus far!

Academic

•I will score 3 As for my A Level. [tbc]

•I will get to a University. Either Warwick, or Exeter, if not Manchester. [Highly likely]

Score so far: 1/2

Athletics & Fitness

•I will log 250km of runs in 2010 on Nike+. [35.9 done. Not good. To be fair, there were a few unlogged runs due to sensor issues. Still, I have to admit, I've not been running much due to the peculiar English weather and the exams.]

•I will run a 10K in under 1 hour. [Far from it]

•I will try to run a full marathon in 2010. [Even further from it]

•I will keep my weight under 75kg. [So far, so good]

Score so far: 2/6

Charity & Church

•I will help at least 5 homeless people in Brighton directly [Safehaven!]

•I will work at the charity shop for 100 hours in 2010. (I have to cheat a bit on this one - I didn't think I'd be doing other sorts of volunteer work, such as Safehaven and Production Team, so I've decided to include those in) [~50h in BHF + ~24h at Safehaven + ~26h on Production Team = 100h!]

Score so far: 4/8

Motoring

•I will pass my practical driving test and get a full license. [Ha!]

•I will buy my first car. [Not likely]

Score so far: 4/10

Music

•I will attend at least 2 live events/concerts/gigs in 2010. [Owl City, Brian Eno, that's 2. And later this year, I'm watching Imogen Heap!]

•I will join a music team, be it the church music team, or a choir in Uni. [I'm putting a 0.5 on this for joining the Production Team at St. Peter's. Technically, it's not what I meant, but it is a form of 'music team', so 0.5]

Score so far: 5.5/12

Tech, Art & Social Networking

•I will not buy any more Apple products. No iPods, iPhones, Macs, iSlate, etc. Only provision allowed: An Apple Remote, since mine is a bit wonky. [iPad]

•I will finish my short film project by the end of 2010. [Oh wait, I did that slow-mo thing! That's a short film of sorts!]

•I will get a new Time Machine HDD. [Not yet. Probably will when I'm in SG]

•I will post at least 200 blog posts. [currently 47. Not even 50%, is it?]

•I will post my 2,000th tweet in 2010. [As of posting, it's 1423, so this one's a no-go.]

•I will get my 5,000th view on my Flickr Page. [Yes]

•I will increase the number of uploads I have on Flickr to 400. [Yes]

Score so far: 8.5/19

Travel

•I will visit 6 UK cities in 2010. [Coventry, Birmingham, Manchester, Exeter, Brighton&Hove, London]

•I will go to at least 4 countries [Indonesia, Singapore, UK - yep. TBC: Malaysia, USA (New York), China (Shanghai)]

Score so far: 10.25/21

Well, that's almost 50%, isn't it? And it's only the first half of the year, so who knows! As the Netherlands vs Brazil game has shown, anything can happen after the second half!

Oh wait, that was a football reference. From me - a person who claims to have no interest in football whatsoever. Surely, that deserves another point on my New Year's Resolution Scorecard!

----------------

Oh, speaking of football, erm, may I recommend these 2 links which have been in my address bar, which I thought you may like as well?

First up, if you're interested in predictions and psychic animals, well, have you heard of Paul the Octopus? Well, The Huffington Post has this story which you should read.

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/30/paul-the-octopus-world-cu_n_630776.html

My second link is related to this Vuvuzella thingy. Have you heard of it? And are you a Rihanna fan? Well, you'll love this link. It's the Vuvuzella Song. Brilliant lyrics like:

"I think I might call Nelson Mendela,
To see if he can order me a Vuvuzella
(ella ella eh eh ...)"

Now, isn't that just the best rhyme ever? Well, there's more of such stuff, along with some football references, in this link:

http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/5live_Vuvuzella.mp3

Original Post:

http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/oddballs/831274-vuvuzela-song-makes-light-of-world-cup-instrument-with-umbrella-mock-up

Well, that's all for now.

And yes, this blog is back from hibernation!

yes, it was on hiatus!

2010-06-23T15:24:00.001+01:00

(Title says all)

Yes, I'm back to full-time blogging from now on! I'm sure many have missed me!

Or maybe not, if my Google Analytics number are anything to go by.

I don't think I need to explain why I've been inactive when it comes to updating this plot of land on the blog-o-sphere that I call 'da ron files' - exams, studies, Facebook, no reason to blog, you get it.

I thought I'd put up something just to let you know how I've been. I'm fine. Bored, but fine. Seriously, I'm bored from all these exams now, I just want to get home and play around with Objective-C. That's right, I'm planning on making an app for the iPad/iPhone during the holidays! Oh JOY! I, a dude with no coding experience what-so-ever (other than HTML, but arguably, that's just coding for babies), am going to dabble into the world of App-making. Watch out for my app in an app store near you (hopefully, if Apple doesn't think my app is junk)!

Oh yeah, I've been preparing to go back to Jakarta (departing UK this Sunday evening, arriving Monday evening) for the summer break while I wait for my A Level results and Uni. Come to think of it, assuming I don't blog anymore until I'm back in Jakarta, this could be the last posting from Brighton. So maybe I'd spend a bit of time to reflect on my time in Brighton over the past 1 year and 2 months.

Brighton certainly has its bohemian characteristics - in fact, if people were to ask me to describe Brighton in one word, that's the word I'd choose - bohemian. This city is quite alternative - a walk along the Laines is enough to prove my point. It's also a fun city - there's the pier, the beach, the music venues. And I'm glad to have met so many people from different backgrounds; in church, at school, and at the charity shop. My time here hasn't always been pleasant (I shall not say why on this blog). Nonetheless, I'm quite sad that I'm going to leave all these behind in a few days' time, but I guess I have to move on to the next phase in life, wherever that brings me, right?

Anyway, talking about vacation-time, I'm going to be transiting in Singapore for a couple of days, before my Uni Term starts (obviously). My only dilemma is when. My Uni Orientation/Welcome Week starts around 25 September, and I might arrive earlier so I can get my stuff moved over from Brighton to Exeter/Coventry. Aside from that, my parents were also planning on heading to Shanghai for the World Expo, but no dates have been committed for that. Then, I heard Founder's Day in SAS is late August - one month before I should start heading off to the UK. So, what's the plan? At the moment, I have none. But I'm definitely heading to Singapore between now and my Uni term. So, keep watching this space (or my Facebook status updates, or Twitter), as I'll update when I have updates! (redundant redundancy!)

Alright, then. Cheerios, people! I have an Accounting and MacroEcons paper left to study for. See you on the other side of the globe!

iPhone 4. Welcome to 2004.

2010-06-07T21:30:00.001+01:00

Seems like the Gizmodo leak was no early-day prototype, if the photos from the major news sources are anything to go by.

Yes, world, we have a new iPhone, and the phone from the future phones home from the past. We have video calling. Sort of.

Video Calling: So Late

I don't understand why it took Apple Inc. 4 product life cycles to come up with a feature that we've had on our Nokia smartphones since the advent of 3G [WCDMA, not even HSDPA] technology. Apple just took that same idea, bumped up the resolution (and as a result, the bandwidth requirement), and locked out the option to call over 3G thanks to their uncomfortable marriage with AT&T in the USA. So much for the "Innovation happens because of the synergy between Cingular and Apple" mantra. Of course, that was Cingular, and nobody mentioned what would happen when Cingular merges with another Telco to form AT&T, the largest telco experiencing growing pains and diseconomies of scale. Face it, at that level of service, the network is sinking into oblivion - service-wise, that is.

I still don't get why Apple can't include video calling since iPhone 3G, and since they have included a front-facing camera, why not allow video calling via 3G outside the US? I mean, Apple managed to block visual voicemail and tethering just fine for certain users (me). Why not video calling?

The Screen & Steel

There were some features of the iPhone 4 (no G!) that I did like, though. the 960x640 screen will definitely look good, although, again, why IPS technology, I still don't understand (it drains the battery, remember?). And the fix to get better reception is just brilliant - use the steel bits on the side of the case as the antenna. Let's wait and see what the FCC thinks about the radiation level on that! (Oh wait, it's been approved?)

At this point, I'd also want to moan about the camera quality on the iPhone. But I'm glad Apple actually tried finding a way to improve the image quality - or so they claimed. I'll have to see to believe it.

The Second Mic?

Another thing I'd like to see, or should I say, hear more about is that second mic. Apparently, it's meant to help block ambient noise during voice calls. That's an interesting addition, because when I make a call in speakerphone mode on my iPhone 3GS, nobody can hear me on the other side, even if I'm speaking directly to the mic.

I'd say that overall, there's not enough to make me want to pre-order an iPhone directly from O2 or Orange. A lot of the things I want, I will get in iOS4 anyway - multi-tasking, creating playlists, bluetooth keyboard support. And I have accessories which are designed for the 3G/3GS's sculpted design - my JBL speakers, and the Mophie juicepack. And besides, I'm still thinking of switching to another carrier for my next phone - I first need to see the reception level at my Uni first.

Overall, A Lackluster Announcement for an otherwise decent phone.

I say I'm not pre-ordering on Day 1 of pre-orders, but I will probably buy one eventually because my 3GS has not long left in its life - the battery seems to be depleting more quickly, even though it's plugged in most of the day. I plug it in hours before I go to bed (8pm), unplug it before breakfast (8am-ish), and by the time I'm plugging it in again (another 12 hours), it goes from 100% to 40%, even though it's not doing much other than fetching my mail and push notifications from Facebook over 3G. In the past, heavy web-surfing for an hour + 12 hours standby = 50% drainage. So, obviously, the battery has aged a bit, and unlike wine, this ageing process is not graceful.

The 3GS will be unlocked, and it'll become my world phone - it has a standard SIM card slot, rather than one of those Micro-SIMs that only the new kids on the block have. Again, I want to rant on how stupid an idea I think the micro-sim is (at present, when not all countries have Microsim, post-paid and pre-paid). But hey, MicroSIm is a standard, and I'm sure it'll overtake the standard SIM one day, at least in the smartphone world.

One more thing: The next iPhone?

At this point, the next iPhone is probably still in the drawing boards. I have questions, though. What the heck is Apple going to call it? They've really messed up the naming conventions, haven't they? iPhone, then they jumped a number and called version 2 the iPhone 3G. Then, they realised their earlier mistake, and can't jump to the number 4, so it's iPhone 3G S [there's still debate on whether there is a spacing or not]. Now, Gen 4 is here, but it'll be morally and legally wrong to call it the iPhone 4G, since it doesn't have the 4G technology as implied by its name (4G = WiMax or LTE, the iPhone 4 only has HSPA, which is 3.5G). Now that Gen 4 is iPhone 4, what's iPhone 5 going to be called? iPhone 5 sounds more like an over-run movie than a 5th-gen product running on a 4th-gen network (I'm assuming 4G to be ready by next year, of course).

Also, if the keynote is supposed to indicate anything to me, it's that Apple may be running out of steam soon. Yeah, they can bump up to 1080p, 8 megapixels, better flash, better front-facing camera, a better processor, longer battery life, more RAM, smaller size, greater durability, etc. But how else can they innovate? The pressure is on this company to churn out new products every year, it seems. They may take a break for WWDC next year and say they're focusing on OS X. But can they afford to do that?

Scoring the WWDC...

2010-06-07T19:57:00.001+01:00

The Basics.

1. Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall will present most of the keynote. (5m for each presenter)

[5]

2. iPhone OS 4 will be given a final release date (10m if within one fortnight of the keynote, 5m if within 6 weeks, 1m if any date/timeframe is mentioned that is greater than 6 weeks)

[10. June 21st]

3. iPhone 4G will be unveiled. (10m if yes, 0m if no)

[8. The 'G' is worth 2 points.]

4. New Safari 5 will be unveiled. (10m if yes, 0m if no)

[0]

5. iPhone 4G will actually do 4G/LTE where available. (10m if yes, 0m if no)

[0]

More on the iPhone OS 4

5 points for any new features not mentioned earlier this year/not discovered by the blog-o-sphere yet.

[5. Bing Support.]

More on the iPhone 4G

5 points if the specs match what's already out there (specifically: IPS display, front facing camera, flash at the back, same design, Micro SIM, Apple A4 chip)

[30]

More on the event in general

5 points for every intro/background video showed.

[15. 5 for the news clips, 5 for the iMovie clip. 5 for the iPhone 4 video.]

10 points for every ad showed.

[10 for the Nissan iAd.]

15 points for every ad that was showed twice.

[0]

20 points for a 'one more thing'.

[20]

Bonus:

+10 points for Steve telling the Live Bloggers to shut off their WiFis and MiFis. LoL.

+10 points for Gyroscope and external antenna - the gyro is awesome, and the antenna is just brilliant thinking.

-20 points for killing off the Live Streams. Hmmph.

+5 points for FaceTime. Brilliant idea. Unfortunately, it's an idea from 2004. And what's with the iPhone4-to-iPhone4 WiFi-only policy?

Points to pass: 50.

Score: 108!

Taking a break from exams - WWDC Predictions

2010-06-06T23:06:00.001+01:00

Because I've been looking at the news while revising for my exams, I am aware that WWDC is tomorrow (7 June 2010). So, here's my predictions/scorecard for the Apple announcements tomorrow.

The Basics.

1. Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall will present most of the keynote. (5m for each presenter)

2. iPhone OS 4 will be given a final release date (10m if within one fortnight of the keynote, 5m if within 6 weeks, 1m if any date/timeframe is mentioned that is greater than 6 weeks)

3. iPhone 4G will be unveiled. (10m if yes, 0m if no)

4. New Safari 5 will be unveiled. (10m if yes, 0m if no)

5. iPhone 4G will actually do 4G/LTE where available. (10m if yes, 0m if no)

More on the iPhone OS 4

5 points for any new features not mentioned earlier this year/not discovered by the blog-o-sphere yet.

More on the iPhone 4G

5 points if the specs match what's already out there (IPS display, front facing camera, flash at the back, same design, Micro SIM, Apple A4 chip)

More on the event in general

5 points for every intro/background video showed.

10 points for every ad showed.

15 points for every ad that was showed twice.

20 points for a 'one more thing'.

Points to pass: 50.

Macroeconomics: Things to check out

2010-05-31T21:19:00.000+01:00

Since I'm revising for my Unit 2 (MacroEcons unit) exam, I thought I should share a few links to web resources/videos that might help/be of interest to Econs students.

1. BBC Documentary: The Love of Money (2009)

This 3-hour documentary looks at the world financial crisis of 2008-2009 and the events surrounding it - the Greenspan years, the collapse of Lehman, and the response by politicians. It features accounts from key players in the crisis - Alan Greenspan, Tim Geithner, Alistair Darling, Gordon Brown, and many more. It's no longer on the BBC iPlayer, but fortunately for everyone (especially those not in the UK, I found them on YouTube. (I typed the title of the episodes as used by the BBC, as well as the title used by the YouTube member in brackets)

Episode 1: The Bank That Bust the World [The Fall of Lehman]

http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkAngelStarQ#grid/user/1D8C7CC36500EA3E

Episode 2: The Age of Risk [The Boom and Bust Years]

http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkAngelStarQ#grid/user/2E6957F5E51F78C1

Episode 3: Back from the Brink [The Last Days of the Banks]

http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkAngelStarQ#grid/user/A3C2F641D82BDDA5

2. iTunes U

A feature that was added to iTunes not too long ago, iTunes U is one of the places to go to for free, publicly-accessible web content (tutorials, talks, etc.) from some of the biggest universities/academies around. Obviously, some of these are way beyond A Level Economics. But you can watch them just to get a feel of what Economics (or whatever course you want to do) at Uni might be like, I guess

Some of the ones that I've downloaded (long ago and starting to watch now):

University of Warwick: The Global Credit Crunch and the Global Economy

http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/warwick.ac.uk.2017263320.02017263328

MIT: The Economics Meltdown: What Have We Learnt, if Anything? by Paul Krugman

http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/mit.edu.3609336962.03609336968.3599872997?i=1752459984

3. Spot of Economics Blog

A blog by one of the Econs teachers from my college, Mr Spottiswoode. It's more for the UK syllabus, so if you're reading this from Singapore, there may be some stuff that's a bit different/irrelevant (I don't think you'd care about the UK Balance of Trade as much as I have to for my exam). But still, it's a good read.

http://spoteconomics.blogspot.com

Hope you found the links useful!

On OECD's Outlook, BBC iPlayer, Intel GPUs, and Rupert Murdoch's empire.

2010-05-27T00:07:00.001+01:00

Phew, that was a long title.

Yes, it's a posting of 4 topics. So treat them as 4 separate blog posts.

This first bit is on Econs - if you're doing MacroEcons, you might be interested. Otherwise, this is just a load of gibberish. It's a bit UK-focused, but heck.

--------

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) has recently released their latest outlook for the member economies (mainly US, EU nations, and Japan). One recommendation that they mentioned in the outlook was the warning that the US, UK and Canada should raise interest rates to 3.5% "latest by the end of this year". Another was recommendations for fiscal tightening in all member countries, to ease those budget deficits and please bond markets.

But there are problems with their recommendations, though.

In times like now, where the economy is still quite fragile, it seems a bit risky to use both contractionary fiscal and contractionary monetary policies together in such a short period of time.

Yes, these governments have to restore confidence and calm markets about their sovereign debts, so as to avoid a debt crisis like the one in Greece (especially in the PIIGS - Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain). And yes, George Osbourne, pay off debt now, and there's less later. But the concern now is whether it's too early to take away the support the economy still needs - unemployment in the States is still rising, as is expected in the UK until Mid-2010. Consumer confidence and spending is not exactly strong, either. And with the Euro still tumbling thanks to Greece and Merkel, I suspect the UK will be affected by poor exports as well.

And I've not even got to the raising of interest rates yet. Raise that, and people on mortgages would have to spend more of their income on loan repayments, assuming these people still have a job. Also, higher costs of borrowing isn't very helpful to businesses which are planning to reduce their workforce. This could have an impact on aggregate demand, employment, consumer confidence, and ultimately, economic growth.

Oh, and let's not forget what Mervyn King mentioned about the inflation rate in the UK. It was 3.7% CPI, above the 2(±1)% target. Reasons? Well, VAT went back up from 15% to 17.5% in January, oil prices rose 80% y-o-y, and so did food and clothing prices. Mervyn's concern is that at the moment, the upward pressure on prices are short-term, and they are masking the downward pressure on prices as a result of the spare capacity in the economy, created by the recession.

With these factors in mind, I would think interest rates shouldn't go up until GDP growth has stabilised. Get the easy money flowing a bit more. before worrying about an overheating economy.

As for the fiscal policies, the governments would probably know best. They have to calm markets at both ends - on one end, you want to keep spending to get economic growth again; on the other hand, you want to keep bond markets and credit ratings agencies happy by cutting spending/borrowing. It's a balancing act. Looking at Greece, there appears to be strong pressures to cut spending/reduce borrowing. But not so much that the economy enters a double-dip. (PIIGS are an exception, I guess. They MUST cut spending.)

Link: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article7136901.ece

--------

In other non-Econs news, have you checked out the new BBC iPlayer? It's in testing now, and it'll replace the current design in June/July. One feature that is planned, according to the Financial Times, is the ability to search for content from other networks (BSkyB, ITV, Channel 4, etc.) and click through to those networks' websites (e.g.: 4oD, ITV Player, etc.). Thought that was an interesting tidbit.

Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d293bfe2-68c1-11df-96f1-00144feab49a.html [FT article - may have limited access]

--------

And in Tech, I highly recommend reading this Ars Technica posting on the state of Intel and their GPUs. For techie Econs student, this could be an example of how monopoly leads to reduced incentives to improve the quality of the product (resources being allocated and used inefficiently in the market, perhaps?).

Link: http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/05/intel-tells-users-you-dont-need-future-proof-gpus.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

--------

And in slightly upsetting news for proponents of 'free news online', The Times & The Sunday Times will start charging visitors to their websites, thetimes.co.uk and sundaytimes.co.uk from June onwards - £2 per week, £1 per day. News Corp. (which owns The Times and Sunday Times) said they will also start charging for their other news websites, The Sun and News of the World, later this year. The rationale for such a move is valid, though. They seem to have a harder time making money off online ad revenues, so they will have to move to a charged model to keep the business running. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out, since there are free alternatives to The Times - Guardian.co.uk (I love their iPhone App, by the way), The Independent, Telegraph.co.uk, just to name a few. I love the Times, so I hope Rupert Murdoch works this one out. Don't get me wrong, I hate the guy for what he stands for politically, and for the power he has in the media circles (he owns Fox News, WSJ, BSkyB, The Sun - most read tabloid in the UK, The Times, and News of the World). But The Times has pretty good cartoonists and columnists. Heck, even Clarkson is writing for The Times!

Link: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article7136619.ece

Whoa, things are quiet around here...

2010-05-26T16:52:00.001+01:00

Sorry, I haven't been blogging much recently.

Exams are coming (*gasp!*). Not just any exams, either. It's the finals - the A Levels. Just give me another 30 days and it'll all be done.

Gosh, I really can't believe how time flies. Pretty soon, I'll be moving on to Uni, and then, a job. Seems a bit overwhelming, now that I think of it that way...

But the music ain't gonna stop till the fat lady sings, innit? (Sorry, trying to mix a bit of rap and UK teens accent there.)

Anyway, speaking of rap, I'm really not sure what has gone in to me, but my music preference seems to be on a whirlwind tour of different genres. Just to give you an idea, here's what I've been listening to recently, album-wise (Thanks to Spotify!):

"Immersion" by Pendulum

Genre: Electronica, drum and bass,dubstep, house, electronic rock,drumstep

"Beachcomber's Windowsill" by Stornoway

Genre: Alternative Indie Pop/ Folk

"Conditions" by Temper Trap

Genre: Alternative Rock

"Nothin' on You" (Single) by B.o.B. feat. Bruno Mars

Genre: Alternate Hip Hop/R&B

Come to think of it, I always have this sort of a mix in my general playlists - a hint of R&B, a sprinkle of Rock, a dash of Pop, and a cup of electronica. All alternative, preferably.

And speaking of alternative, I have a question for you. Look at your iTunes playlist. Specifically, look at the genre column. What proportion of your music says "Alternative"? Because most of the stuff I listen to seem to be categorised as "Alternative" even though I would argue them to be something else.

E.g.:

The Corrs - they're more 90's Pop than Alternative, IMO.

Fall Out Boy - I though they're a bit Pop/Rock?

Coldplay - Pop!

Linkin Park - Rock!

My point is, how do you define what is Alternative, what is Pop, and what's neither? The lines are blurring, and I think there's a need to make clear distinctions between these genres, or just forget with the whole "Alternative" idea and call it "Interesting music with no real genre".

What's your thought on Alt-Pop?

A New Government?

2010-05-10T19:34:00.001+01:00

Well, looks like things are really shaking up in the UK today.

First, there's the speculation that the Tories and Lib-dems will announce a coalition by today.

Then, no.

If it becomes clear that the national interest, which is stable and principled government, can be best served by forming a coalition between the Labour party and the Liberal Democrats, then I believe I should discharge that duty to form that government which would in my view command a majority in the House of Commons in the Queen's speech and any other confidence votes.

But I have no desire to stay in my position longer than is needed to ensure the path to economic growth is ensured and the process of political reform we have agreed moves forward quickly. The reason that we have a hung parliament is that no single party and no single leader was able to win the full support of the country. As leader of my party, I must accept that that is a judgment on me. I therefore intend to ask the Labour party to set in train the processes needed for its own leadership election. I would hope that it would be completed in time for the new leader to be in post by the time of the Labour party conference. I will play no part in that contest and I will back no individual candidate.

--Gordon Brown, in a speech outside 10 Downing Street

Gordon Brown announced he was going to resign as PM and Labour Party Leader before the next Party Conference in the Autumn. Meaning? New PM, new Labour leader. Something almost everyone seems to be happy about - the Electorates, the Lib Dems, the Plaid Leader, the former Labour MPs/candidates, etc.

Gordon Brown has taken a difficult personal decision in the national interest. And I think without prejudice to the talks that will now happen between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Gordon Brown's decision is an important element which could help ensure a smooth transition to the stable government that everyone deserves.

--A Statement form Nick Clegg via Lib Dem HQ

Gordon Brown has done the decent thing following the overwhelming rejection of his premiership last Thursday. It was clear that he had no mandate from the people to maintain his position in Downing Street, and he has now shown that he has heard that message loud and clear. Mr Brown's announcement is a signal to other progressive parties that Labour is willing to talk in order to explore the possibility of establishing a progressive alliance to govern in Westminster.

Elfyn Llwyd, Plaid Cymru Leader in Westminster

Then, Nick Clegg released a Press Release saying he's not happy with how talks are going with the Tory representatives, so he's going to talk with Labour.

Over the past four days we have been working flat-out to deliver an agreement that can provide stable government that can last. The talks with the Conservatives have been very constructive and I am grateful to David Cameron and his team for the effort they have put in. But so far we have been unable to agree a comprehensive partnership agreement for a full parliament.
We need a government that lasts, which is why we believe, in the light of the state of talks with the Conservative party, the only responsible thing to do is to open discussions with the Labour party to secure a stable partnership agreement. We will of course continue our discussions with the Conservative party to see if we can find a way to a full agreement.
--A Statement form Nick Clegg via Lib Dem HQ

So, it appears like we might have a Lab-Lib-SNP-Plaid-SDLP-Alliance-Green Coalition, if one analyst is to be believed...

For reference, here are the numbers.
There are 650 seats in the Commons. But there are five Sinn Féin MPs who do not take their seats, leaving 645 MPs. So to get a working majority you would need 323 votes.
There are 258 Labour MPs and 57 Lib Dem MPs. That makes 315. The SDLP (a sister party of Labour's) has three MPs and there is one MP who represents the Alliance (which is allied to the Lib Dems). If you add them, you get to 319. Plaid Cymru is in coalition with Labour in Wales. They've got three MPs, and if they join the total rises to 322. The SNP has also signalled its willingness to join a progressive pact of some kind, and its six MPs would take that total to 328. If the Greens' Caroline Lucas were to vote with this bloc, that would take you to 329.
The Tories have 306 seats. (One is the Speaker, but two Labour MPs – and another Tory – are likely to become deputy Speakers, and so they cancel each other out.) When the contest in Thirsk takes place, that is likely to rise to 307. If the Democratic Unionists (eight MPs) were to vote with the Tories (as they normally do), the Tory-DUP total would rise to 315.
Gordon Brown is right to say that the "progressives" could form a majority. But they would be dependent on several small parties and they would not have much of a cushion for when people started to rebel.

All I can say is that things are getting interesting, and possibly a bit heated, judging from the Tory response as delivered by William J Hague,

That is the choice that they will now have to make ... We are absolutely convinced that we should not have another unelected prime minster and we should not change our voting system without a referendum... Under the Tory plans, Tories would be free to campaign against AV in a referendum.

--William Hague, during a Conservative Press Conference

Thanks to The Guardian's Andrew Sparrow's Election Live Blog for all the excerpts. Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/10/general-election-2010-live-blog

Hope they wouldn't mind me condensing their material before they get swept under continuous updates!

Eno.

2010-05-03T12:26:00.001+01:00

Finally, another item off my New Year's Resolution! I was starting to feel I'm not going to meet any of the remaining items on that list!

Yes, I went to the Brighton Dome yesterday to watch "This is Apollo", part of the Brighton Festival 2010 events that's going on from 1 May to 23 May.

It was interesting to hear how Brian Eno feels about, well, the 60's - the era when man tried everything that they could imagine - travelling to space; developing the Concorde; Andy Warhol, who most notably created an 8-hour film, "Empire" (See Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_(1964_film) ), which basically featured the Empire State Building at night, with the lights going on and off as the cleaners roam around the building; and of course, the Apollo Moon Landing Mission itself. He described the 60's as the time when man tried everything - the drugs, sex, and travel.

Eno also talked about the story behind his compositions - Apollo, which turned out to be a project he got involved with after someone who had access to the Moon landing footages used his "Music for airports" tracks as the soundtrack. He made some new compositions for the Apollo Landing clips - one of the challenges he faced was trying to emulate the sound of space, which, as we know, is silence. The result was his 1983 album, "Apollo". [Spotify: Brian Eno – Apollo iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/apollo-atmospheres-soundtracks/id49814746 ]

He also reminded the audience present last night that his music was not meant to be played 'live' - he just composed them on the computer, looping over and adding/shedding layers as he went along. So, he sent his music to some other composer, got him to write the music for performance, and got BJ Cole and Icebreaker to perform the music last night, accompanied by a condensed, 50-minute film of the Apollo mission, from the entering of the shuttle, to take-off, to the time on the moon, and finally the return journey.

It was an emotional roller-coaster, as you watched and imagine how frightening it must be to be sitting on top of a huge bomb propelling you out of the Earth's atmosphere and being the first few to land on the moon. Yet, at the same time, you see the trio floating about out of their craft, then in their cramped shuttle, and once they landed on the moon, you see them having great difficulties holding objects with their thick gloves. Of course, it wasn't all serious and gloomy - you see the astronauts bunny-hopping so care-freely, and occasionally tripping.

And of course, I got to hear one of Eno's most brilliant compositions - An Ending (Ascent) [Spotify: Brian Eno – An Ending (Ascent) iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/an-ending-ascent/id49814746?i=49814688 ] as the astronauts drifted further away from the earth's atmosphere, and finally as they landed over water.

Oh, by the way, I have to say, what a diverse range of musical instruments they had - from glockenspiel to accordion, from piccolo to electric guitars, from double bass to a pedal steel guitar. Pianos to Sax, and all sorts of other percussion instruments. All these, to emulate the sound of space. Talk about irony!

I must say, this has to be one of the most impressive events that I've been to in a while. The only thing that spoiled it for me was Eno's not-so-brilliant voice as he sang a few tunes after the film. But that's minor, really, compared to how immaculately the music and video complement each other. It's just astoundingly brilliant.

Rating: 4.9/5.

First past the post.

2010-05-02T13:49:00.001+01:00

On 6 May 2010, the UK goes to the polls to decide who will form the next parliament.

Here, there's been quite a stir about the electoral system and how it can be unfair to certain political parties.

You see, the UK has something called the "First past the post" system [Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post ] , somewhat similar to those in the US Presidential election and the Singapore General Elections. Basically, the electorates are divided into constituencies, and the person with the most votes in each constituency wins for that constituency. Sounds fair, right?

Well, arguably, no. Let me explain using the example of the US Presidential elections of 2000, between Al Gore and George W. Bush.

In the US, the candidate with the most votes in each state wins all the electoral votes, or 'tickets', for that state. The tickets are allocated in a way that should more or less reflect the population in that state. So, a large state like California would have something like 55 'tickets'. A candidate that gains 270 tickets wins the election. (Yes, this is an oversimplification. But for simplicity's sake, let's assume that's true.) In 2000, Al Gore received the most number of votes [50.9m, compared with 50.4m for Bush]. However, due to the way the 'tickets' have been assigned, Bush was able to win the election with 271 tickets, even though he didn't get the most votes.
[Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2000 ]

In the UK, there has been criticisms being fired at the voting system, too. Mainly, the percentage of votes for a party does not translate into the proportion of seats in the House of Commons received by that party. This has often put smaller parties, like the Liberal Democrats, at a disadvantage, as they would require much more votes to translate votes into seats. In contrast, the incumbent Labour party can still remain the largest party in power, even if they came in third place in terms of votes. Many have said this is unfair, arguing that there should be a more direct translation between votes and seats. Gordon Brown himself has thrown in his own idea into the hat - Alternative Voting
[Read: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8068583.stm ]

Why am I blogging about the electoral system in the UK? Well, I thought it would make an interesting Mathematical/Political/Philosophical debate. How would you solve a problem like the Electoral system, be it in Singapore, the UK, or the US, to make it more representative of the people? Or does it not matter, whether we get the same level of representation in Congress/Parliament as we do in terms of public sentiments? What is the most fair, efficient way to run an election and decide the winners?

Just my two cents' worth.

Music Picks for the moment

2010-04-28T11:47:00.000+01:00

Haven't done one in a while, so you know what it means, don't you? It's time to search around for stuff I've never heard of and preview them on Spotify!

Here's my picks for the moment. Note that some of these are not new, which is why these are called 'Picks', not 'chart entrants'.

#1. White Rabbits - Percussion Gun

I challenge you to listen to this track without being all fidgety and pumped. It's been ringing in my ears, and yet I'm still not sick of it. That's how you know we have a chart-topper. Well, in my charts, anyway. 5/5

#2. Ingrid Michaelson - Everybody

Thanks to Sandra & Holly for recommending this track to me. It's a fun, simple tune you could sing along to. You could say it's just clichés in it, but you know what? It doesn't matter, does it? "Everybody, Everybody wants to love, Everybody, Everybody wants to be loved" - such sweet lyrics should put a smile on your face. On top of that, Ingrid's voice is like candy to the ears. 4.6/5

#3. Train - Hey, Soul Sister

Thanks to Topsify.com and the US Charts for recommending this track. As with many US exports, I am unfamiliar to them at first. I still am, when it comes to this band. But what I do know is that this track has the vibes of another brilliant feel-good track - "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz. And we all know where that went. So, I'm sure this track will cross the Atlantic and Pacific. 4.5/5

#4. The Script - Breakeven

I know I'll look outdated with this pick. But who cares. Some of you might have heard this track before, didn't know the title/artiste, and after you google/spotify this band and hear the track, you'll now know what the band is. That's why I put it in the list. It's a nice track. 4.4/5

#5. Keane and K'naan' - Stop For A Minute

One of my favourite bands, Keane, has been in the studios. Following their last album, Perfect Symmetry, they'll be releasing "Night Train" on 10 May 2010 - I'll hopefully remember to review that when it's out. Meanwhile, we have a single to listen to. Call me biased, but it seems that whatever Keane does, I will still like it. And you know what? The same applies here. 4.3/5

#6 Miike Snow - Animal

If you are fine with imperfect vocals - think Empire of the Sun, MGMT - and you like abstract lyrics - again, think Empire of the Sun, MGMT - then this you might like. I've listened to "Black and Blue", another one of Miike's tracks, played on the radio far too often on Juice Brighton, and after looking up this guy's other tracks, I kinda like his/their tracks. 4.2/5

Alright, I'm running out of time, so here's a quick rundown on the rest of the list.

#7 Mika feat. RedOne - Kick A** (We Are Young)

Soundtrack from the movie Kick-A**. (I know it's not that bad a cuss word, but hey, this is a family-friendly blog.) 4.1/5

#8 Jack Johnson - You and Your Heart

I smell an album coming. (In June, perhaps?) 4.0/5

#9 Diana Vickers - Once

Yes, she's number one on the UK charts. Doesn't mean she's number one on mine. 3.95/5

#10 Kate Nash - Do-Wah-Doo

Again, yet another radio hit. 3.9/5

Well, there you go. My Music Picks for the moment. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Oh, side-track. I've tried listening to Anberlin. The only track that I like so far is "The Unwinding Cable Car". Maybe Anberlin and I are just not meant to be. In the same way that Marmite and Kiwifruits aren't meant for each other. Heh.

On Music...

2010-04-18T23:04:00.001+01:00

If you haven't seen my post on my room decor (probably because the images are taking years to upload), then I do recommend you check that out.

Because if you do/did, then you'd probably seen some of the stuff I've been listening to and enjoying.

I bought a CD (GASP!). The first time I heard this band, it was in a free single off of iTunes - Two Door Cinema Club is the band I'm talking about here. But once I heard the single (and iTunes rarely gives free singles that I enjoy/stick to), I thought "Hey, this is a good track. Let's see what else they have". And because the album was going for cheap at Resident, the record store in the North Laines, I bought it on Record Store Day. It's indie rock with a hint of electronica (they're not really electronica, but I sense a bit of the vibes that I normally get from an electronica track, if you get what I mean). Very similar to Phoenix, I'd say. Really enjoying the album, Tourist History. 4.5/5

Must Download:

Something Good Can Work

Eat That Up, It's Good For You

Come Back Home

Next up: Vampire Weekend, with Contra. Again, someone else could probably write a better description/biography of them than I can, but I'll tell it the way I hear their tracks. It's playful music. The first track, Horchata, opens up with a beat that reminds you of the Calypso. Then you have Holiday, which makes you feel you're enjoying a nice day at the beach. Oh, and of course, Giving Up The Gun (which has been charting in the UK) always puts a smile to my face everytime I hear it. Which is why it took over Will.i.am to become the song I first hear when I get up. I normally don't like playful, but for once, I actually love the beats these guys are throwing down. 4/5

Must Download:

Giving Up The Gun

Diplomat's Son

Horchata

Run

This one's been out for some time, but apparently, I haven't reviewed it yet. So, let's talk Mumford And Sons, which should not be mistaken for a small business run by Mr Mumford. They're a slightly more folksy band - in their album, Sigh No More, you'll hear banjos, violins and the double bass, occasionally the piano and guitar, but otherwise, they're a very "stripped-down" musical group. Organic music, if you'd like to call it. Nothing wrong with that - I like how it sounds, especially on a lazy, sunny weekend. Sigh No More gets a 3.8/5.

Must Download:

The Cave

Winter Winds

Little Lion Man

From an older album to a newer album. Here's Jonsí with Go. Let's face it. This album's a bit eccentric in its arrangement. Personally, I'm not digging the sounds - maybe because I'm starting to get irritated by the falsettos. Putting my personal grudges aside, I think people who like MGMT (I'll get on to it later) and Sigur Ros will like this album. Heck, if you're a fan of Jonsi and all he's been doing, from Jonsi&Alex to Sigur Ros, then you would have probably bought this album. But personally, I'm really sorry to give it: 2/5

Must Download:

Go Do

Tornado

Kolniður

Here's a quick one: MGMT, with Congratulations. Maybe it's just me, but I don't like it. 1/5.

Must Download:

Here's a longer one to round up the review post - Miike Snow's latest own-name album. I've been hearing their songs being played regularly over the radio whenever I work at BHF (the charity shop where I'm volunteering). Love their stuff. It's a louder version of The xx, in a sense. Along the lines of Passion Pit. In a subjective way, I love this band. Nuff' said. 4.5/5

Must Download:

Animal

Burial

Black or Blue

A Horse Is Not A Home

There you go! 6 album reviews in a short space of time. Enjoy!

On SA vs ACS

2010-04-18T21:12:00.000+01:00

There's tons of stuff I wanted to get off my mind. So, here's the first blog post for the night...

On SA vs ACS...

I haven't said much on this, mainly because I thought I shouldn't, since I didn't understand what happened. But now that things are a bit clearer, I'm breaking the silence.

Don't get me wrong - I love my alma mater. But can we be a bit more objective about this whole SA-AC debacle, and set our differences aside? What happened on the pitch shouldn't have happened. Since it has happened, we should try to resolve it, not to let the single spark burn down the whole forest on both sides of the border. The way Stomp reports the incident is not very helpful, for one. Clearly, the "Stomper" that gave the tip-off to this story (or, more likely, the editor) has never been to a Rugby Finals Match, because it has been a tradition for students from the victorious school to run to the pitch after the final whistle has been blown, as a form of celebration. Then, everyone will gather around the centre stand - many of the students will be on the field at this time, too. This hasn't been a big deal since, oh, way before I reached Secondary school (I've graduated, if you are asking). It's only in 2010 that the press is horrified to learn about the "traditions" of the Inter-schools Rugby Finals.

I'm really glad to see some positive responses to this incident from various parties - I've heard the principals of both schools have arranged the teams to meet. That's a positive first step. And I've seen some alumni and students trying to ease the situation with Facebook groups and discouraging inflammatory comments/feelings. And I've seen a more neutral commentary on Redsports.sg [Link].

We have to deal with this situation in a matured fashion.

This aggressive behaviour is not acceptable. But given the circumstances, I can understand why it has happened. Think about it - these rugby players have been working at trying to clinch the title for months. They've worked their guts out, they've sacrificed quite a lot, and at the end of the day, they are still students. They've been through a lot, only to realise that their effort was only enough for 2nd, not first. And add to that the score margin line of 1 point. That was probably the last straw for that student who snapped.

We are all capable of being violent and aggressive. That's what Phillip Zimbardo and Stanley Milgram both proved in each of their studies. We are all capable of making mistakes. We all are. We're only human, after all. Let's just make amends and carry on. Lesson learnt, no inflammatory comments necessary.

UPDATE:

Ok, I take back what I said about Stomp. My criticism of them might have been a bit harsh. To be fair, the person who wrote up the story was probably relying on a 3rd-party account of the incident. Would have been unreliable, but hey, that's how Stomp works, with its contribution and citizen journalism methods, isn't it? It's not perfect, but it gets the word out on what happened.

On my room...

2010-04-18T21:00:00.004+01:00

~~A lot of you have been asking about my room...~~

I wished people asked more about my room.
Well, let's pretend you care about it as much as I do, and talk home decor.

Welcome to my room!

From L-R:

•"Swim" 7" (Surfer Blood) on the Toilet door,

•"Contra" Poster (Vampire Weekend) opposite the mirror, so that whenever I look in the mirror for too long, I get reminded by the disgusted girl in the album art that I should get a move on.

•An Installation Work that I'm working on in my room - trying to make a tree-structure using spare / dead earphones. (Yes, I still need more. Do donate them if you have any you can give, and if you're in Brighton).

•"The XX" Poster (The xx) on the right of the mirror. Over it, there's a brochure which I took from the Manchester Art Museum, which says "Welcome".

L-R:

My desk - a bit messy.

My Installation work - Work-in-progress. Pictured with Two Door Cinema Club's latest album.

Mirror - Get the 'disgusted girl' idea now?

Close-up of my desk.

Clockwise from Top-L:

Shelf of books and files - nothing interesting there.

Blackboard - Top Gear Calendar, Bits of paper, lanyards, post-its, my Bose QC15s (an extension of my installation work - the cable merely dangles on other earpieces, so I can grab the headphones and keep the work intact.)

On the desk - cups/bottles, empty tissue box meant for receipts for accounting purposes, Sunjar, notepad with Magic Mouse, my plot of grass, two light sources - one has a tissue roll above it. And of course, my beloved gadgets - MBP, iPhone, JBL speakers.

My bed and cupboard.

L-R:

Never-closed cupboard door for hanging jackets,

"Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" (Sigur Ros) 12"

An array of photos, including images of my laptop screen (hidden away, but available on Flickr), The donut near Brighton pier, two of Hove beach side-by-side, interrupted by The XX (The xx) 12", then an image of the Spinnaker at Portsmouth, and another of a brick-and-mortar building in Birmingham (all are available in the "UK" set on my Flickr page).

Below the images: a row of CDs that I got from the textbooks that I bought, visually connected by a spoilt cable that used to be for my Bose QC15s (don't worry, I got a free replacement from Bose). The first disc has a post-it note.

Oh, and if you look closely, you might see that the vinyl case has something stuck at the middle of the white "X". It's my pitch-pipe - the one with the overly-sharp High F. These things make good indicators for how I'm leaning, in terms of an array of options. You see, 3 of the 4 CDs had post-it notes written on them, detailing my options for University. Speaking of which...

The Post-it Note.

For weeks, the pitch pipe has been pointing towards this Post-it (or an 'E', if you want to know the note). By process of elimination, it seems like that's how I'm choosing for my UCAS...

Music to wake up with...

2010-04-16T01:04:00.001+01:00

I've been using this Alarm Clock App on my Mac (yes, my Mac, not my iPhone. Link: http://www.robbiehanson.com/alarmclock/index.html ) to wake me up recently. Really lightweight, and it lets you choose a playlist, rather than just a 30s clip as it is on the iPhone, to rock you and keep you dancing as you get out of bed. Just remember to turn up the speaker volume and unplug your earphones/plug in your speakers!

Anyway, thanks to this app, I can now have an excuse to blog again - to make a playlist of tunes to get you out of bed!

1. Take That - Greatest Day
What's better than waking up to hear someone sing to you "Today, this could be the greatest day of our lives"?

2. Angels and Airwaves - The Adventure
Set iTunes to start playing 23 seconds in, and you'll be awaken by a build-up, from the softer percussion instruments, to the electric guitars looming in the background, followed by the cymbals clash and at the end of the build-up, the climax. It's all about the build-up.

3. Sigur Ros - Inní mér syngur vitleysingur
If you speak Icelandic, well I hope this option makes sense. To the rest of us, it has colourful, cheerful, and chirpy qualities. What's not to like?

4. The Wombats - Let's Dance to Joy Division
Nothing like a song that wants to make you jump out of bed and just move about energetically, no matter how foul your mood may be.

5. Black Eyed Peas - Rock That Body
Of course, yet another track to get you looking lively in a minute.

6. will.i.am - It's a New Day
Though this song was meant to mark the Obama campaign and eventual election victory, its title can be taken literally, and what you get is an optimistic track to get the day started right.

7. Jonsí - Go Do
The title is apt - urging you to 'Go Do' whatever it is you should be doing, other than lying in bed. But since the lyrics is hard to comprehend, let's go on the merits of the music itself. It's uplifting, and it contrasts the pumping staccatos of the percussions and the flute with the legato of Jonsí's bright falsetto vocals.

8. McFly - Star Girl
I know this seems like a random choice, but Chris Moyles, the morning breakfast show DJ on BBC Radio 1, has been playing this song every Friday, calling it "McFly-day". No idea how or why, but this song feels appropriate for the occasion - it gets you all prepared for the last working day of the week. Do sing along with the 'Oo-oo-oo-oohhh..." bits to warm up your vocal chords in the morning (especially in the shower!).

So there you go. 8 choice tracks to get you out of bed and into your nice clothes!

Using Maths and Logic.

2010-04-09T23:58:00.001+01:00

I'm back in Brighton from my trip to Birmingham and Manchester.

Right now, I have 25 days to decide where I want to go for my University studies (due 4 May 2010).

Been thinking real hard, but I'm having problems deciding, especially after visiting the universities. I really like Warwick, and I'm undivided when it comes to Manchester and Exeter. The good thing about this is that I know what one of my option will be - Warwick. Also, I don't want Manchester to be my firm, since their offer is the lowest of the 3. So, that The bad news? Well, there's 3 options in my mind to choose from -

Scenario 1:
Firm Exeter, Insurance Warwick.

Scenario 2:
Firm Warwick, Insurance Exeter.

Scenario 3:
Firm Warwick, Insurance Manchester.

Basically, my dilemma lies with the requirement for Econs, assuming I drop Psychology A2 - Exeter would want an A, while the other two would take B. If I take Psychology A2, Exeter would also accept an A in that.

My concern is that my Econs Jan exam results weren't what I'd call 'bullish' - I thought I did alright after the paper, and the result came out to be B, instead of the A that I needed. And that was just Unit 2. Now that I'll be taking all 4 units, and seeing how Unit 3 is being covered so quickly, I have doubts over my ability to get an A in Econs.

Psychology is not a good fall-back safe harbour either - the essay mark schemes in A2 are vague, and our teacher (bless her, she tries her best, but she) isn't very helpful in terms of being explicit on the requirements of a good, credit-worthy essay in the new syllabus. Come to think of it, the AQA board's marking methods are as specific as the Labour & Tory Parties' description on how they'll cut spending. Efficiency Savings - what does that even mean? And what counts as evaluation? Does a description of a study which contradicts another person's theory = evaluation or description?

E.g.: for a question on describing and evaluating the role of hormones on gender role: Troche et al. (2007) vs Rommsayer & Troche (2007) on the correlation between 2D:4DR ratios and an individual's sex role. The former showed no correlation, but the latter indicated significant results in males by suggesting that masculinity may be linked to pre-natal exposure to androgens and oestrogens. So, does the mention of a contradicting study count as evaluation? After all, of the 25 marks for an essay, only 9 goes to description, and 16 to evaluation.

This brings me to my next question: should I drop Psychology A2 (yes, I know it's late, but better late than never), so that I can take one slab of burden off of me and focus more on Econs? Or should I just keep diving deeper into this 'mess', as I chose (well, sort-of) to do with HCL at O Level?

Don't get me wrong - I really like Psychology as an area of academia, in the same way I like Biology. It's deeply thought-provoking, fascinating, and impressive to learn so much about human behaviour, only to discover there's so much we don't know. But I don't think knowledge in these areas are what I need to be tested on at this stage, nor in this way. Not when there's loads still left to be covered for Econs in just one month!

---too tired to edit/continue with this post. If you read my FB statuses, you'd know why.---

Moved!

2010-04-02T00:12:00.000+01:00

Phew! What a day!

Yes, I finally moved all my stuff from the place that I've been living in for the past year to the College Residence. Every single thing in my possession, as far as I can tell. To be honest, I can't quite understand how I managed to squeeze all that in one taxi, but there you go!

Anyway, really, really, big thanks to Holly for helping me load, unload and move my stuff, and to Steffie for letting me leave my stuff in her room while I was keyless. Oh, and helping me with my first go at the washing machine & dryer.

Enough talk about moving - it's quite a nightmare today, thanks to the absence of clear direction as to how I should acquire my room keys and new Student Card / Security Pass (which I still don't have). That's the problem with holidays, I guess.

Seriously, let's move on to a new topic. Music.

No pun intended, but I think my music taste is moving, too.

Not quite sure why, but I'm now hooked on Scottish singer/songwriter Amy Macdonald. I only own one of her tracks (thanks to the iTunes Student Giveaway on Facebook 2 years ago). But after Spotifying (I'll trademark that!) her new album "A Curious Thing", I think she's comparable to KT Tunstall, only darker, less euphemisms, and more emotionally expressive. Maybe it's just me, but I kinda like her stuff now, especially the newer ones.

Oh, if you were surprised by that, hold on. I actually like "Plastic Beach", the Gorillaz album. A bit.

To be honest, when I first heard "Stylo" (the first single off the album, so I used this track as a barometer of how the album will 'peak'), I thought to myself: "This is just cheesy synth mixing. I'm not going to like this album". But when I listened to the rest of the album (again, on Spotify), I had to retract the statement. Well, part of it, anyway.

It is cheesy. Don't tell me it isn't. You hear disco clips here and there across the album, and that is cheesy.

But that hasn't stopped me from getting hooked on a few of the tracks. "Some Kind Of Nature" reminds me of The XX - gentle, hushed sounds with almost whispery vocals. And I guess I loved the song even more because of the whole half-rap-over-a-staccato-background action. I also like Rhinestone Eyes and Empire Ants.

To be honest, I think I don't mind hearing this album at a restaurant or pub, or even a radio station. It feels quite laid back and 'relaxing'. Probably makes good muzak (Check the definition of the word 'muzak' if you think that sentence didn't make sense. You might be thankful.).

I've also been listening to Vampire Weekend.

Oh, and I'm also forcing myself to hear more of Anberlin. Because I keep hearing this band name left and right. Let's see how I get on...

K. off to bed.

Plans.

2010-03-28T18:03:00.002+01:00

Plan to fail, fail to plan. So, here's the plan for this Easter Break.

29-31 March: Nothing much, except hang around London, Brighton and Portsmouth. Maybe Chichester? Mostly revision and packing stuff, because...

1 April: Aside from being April Fool's Day, I'm actually moving into the College Residence. So, I'll be quite busy the entire day.

2-4 April: Not really sure, but I know there's Easter Celebrations at St. Peters on Friday and Sunday. Which leaves Saturday open. Maybe work at the BHF shop?

5 April: Off to B'ham! Late afternoon trip.

6 April: Spend a day at the Bullring and the surrounding areas. Eat at the Balti Triangle? Cadbury World, if I feel like going there (I doubt it)?

7 April: Train from B'ham to M'ster.

8 April: Hopefully, walk around Uni of Manchester, and maybe getting lost in the city.

9 April: Blank, but if I can, I'd probably head to Old Trafford (even though I have very little interest when it comes to football), a couple of museums and libraries (as recommended by Lonely Planet). We'll see...

10 April: Back to B'ton

11 April: Church, and then rush ('chiong') through the textbooks before school reopens.

Bizarre...

2010-03-26T23:19:00.001Z

Been hearing/seeing some bizarre things lately.

Over the past 2 days, I've been heading to London after my lessons to meet Matt Lim (and Jitesh last night) for meals.

Yesterday, apparently, there was a murder incident at Victoria Station at 5.20pm, the station that I have to go through from Brighton to anywhere in London.

Then today, Matt & I were by-standers in two different things.

First, near Liverpool Street Railway Station (Old Broad Street Exit), we saw a lady (along with a few burly guys) chasing another lady who had stolen her handbag. Not sure what the outcome was, but I think she got the handbag back.

Then, at Oxford Street, just outside Urban Outfitters, we saw a crowd gathering around an accident involving a woman and a bus. From the looks of it, the woman was trying to cross the street, and in doing so, hit the front of a double-decker bus. There was ambulance, police, and the front windscreen of the bus showed cracks on the side closer to the door.

Talk about shell-shocked. Times 3...

Oh, and let's not even talk about that drunk girl that went on a bit of a rampage last Saturday and pushed me, some random stranger. Yeah, it's minor, but think of what could have happened had she pushed someone less forgiving and more likely to escalate the situation.

Stay safe, people.

Music Chart for the moment

2010-03-11T13:34:00.002Z

Because I haven't done one in ages. This'll be a quick one - I have lessons at 2.20.

Music Chart for the moment - 11 March 2010

1. Chiddy Bang - Opposite of Adults
2. Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed
3. Marina and the Diamonds - I Am Not a Robot
4. Black Eyed Peas - Rock That Body
5. Two Door Cinema Club - Eat That Up, It's Good For You
6. Imogen Heap - The Shepherdess
7. Florence and Dizzie Rascal - You've Got The Dirtee Love
8. Biffy Clyro - Many of Horrors
9. Owl City - Fireflies
10. Rihanna - Rude Boy

Oh, by the way, as a bonus, here's a selection of tunes that I've been enjoying, thanks to Spotify & iTunes (mostly Spotify, because I'm too cheap to buy them).

Albums in my Spotify Playlist
Vamipre Weekend - Contra
Jonsi & Alex - Riceboy Sleeps
Florence & The Machine - Lungs

Singles

Stereophonnics - Innocent

Mumford & Suns - Winter Winds
Avril Lavigne - Alice
Regina Spektor - Eet
Gramaphonedzie - Why Don't You
Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent)*

*For all the Top Gear fans, this was the track that you would have heard while Jeremy Clarkson was lamenting about the "war against speed" at the end of Season 13, while driving that Aston Vantage V12 along the countryside. This track, on its own, keeps sending goosebumps down my spine, in a good way.

Study aids.

2010-03-05T13:44:00.002Z

I don't think I've ever given sensible advice for studying. (That James Wee guy who did that whole email interview with me probably found that out when he knew I sleep in the weirdest of times.)

But this time, I'm actually giving sensible tips. Yes, I'm introducing you to 3 web tools that I think will help you in whatever it is that you're studying/working on. You might have heard of some of them, but if you haven't, read on. And if you've heard of the first one, I still want you to read it.

1. Google Docs.
http://docs.google.com

We all know that Google Docs is amazing as a Microsoft Office alternative. It's got most of the features, plus it's online, with more collaboration features, and free.

Well, what you probably didn't know is that it can be used to do forms and surveys! Yes, all you JC students with your project works and Survey Monkey stuff. You can use Google Docs to create surveys, embed some code that it generates on a website/blog, and the responses get tabulated "automagically" in a nice table. Just follow the instructions on this link and collect those quantitative/qualitative data (it's a form tool, so it can collect both.)

I tried using it to collect the study hours from the people in my cell group last time (N422), and it worked quite well, except for the part where some people didn't really key in their details. But the point is, people used it, and they didn't have much problems. So, it should work with your project, too! Give it a shot!

2. del.icio.us
http://del.cico.us (or else, http://www.delicious.com )

I've tried this tool ages ago, and then I stopped using it after 3 log-ins. But recently, I found myself actually using it as a handy go-anywhere bookmarking tool that I can use for saving links to articles that I can share during Psychology class (see my del.icio.us page for an example of a real-life application of this tool - I saved 2 links for my Psychology class, which was doing Gender Behaviours).

The basic idea is that you put links into Del.icio.us in the same way you'd put into your bookmark bar. Then, when you're on a different computer, those bookmarks will be on a handy website, ready for you to access. You can also use it to share links with others, or subscribe to certain tags. The MacBreak Weekly Podcast team used to (and I think still does) use del.icio.us to gather news stories and picks to talk about during their show by asking people to tag "MBWideas". That's one possible application of this web tool.

Go ahead. Try it. See if it meets your needs.

3. Dropbox.
http://www.dropbox.com

Dropbox is to the thumbdrive what Del.icio.us is to the bookmark bar, and what Google Docs is to Microsoft Office. It's an online storage solution. And a generous one, too. 2GB for free! And, if you introduce 4 other friends to Dropbox via a referral programme (click here for my referral!), you could get up to an additional 256MB*4=1GB!

It's really handy if you're too lazy to dangle a thumbdrive wherever you go. Just make sure there's an internet connection on the PC where you intend to access the files!

There you go! I hope that helps!

[p.s.: I'm on the school PC. For some reason, it forces me to type URLs in posts manually, but allows hyperlinks. That's why I only post full links for those which I can remember in my STM/LTM. Sorry if this post looked a bit "phishy".]

Warwick - To Firm or not to Firm?

2010-03-05T12:15:00.002Z

I promised Daniel Lim that I would write a 'post or something' after I've gone to Warwick. Well, here it is.

The Warwick Report...
What do I think of Warwick? Well, first off, I'd like to start with the negatives.

The Negatives.

It's a campus university. Some say it's the most 'Campusy' of all campus universities in the UK. What does it mean? Well, your social life and whatnots will all occur within the campus. To put it in another way, it's a bubble. That's because you'd hardly have a reason to get out of the Uni premises and into Coventry. There's not a lot in Coventry, as far as I'm aware, and you're quite probably going to live in the accomodation within the Campus in the first year, which further isolates you from the rest of the city.

(Oh, you have to move out of the Campus accomodation in year 2 & 3. But they have various services to help you find accomodation in Coventry, Kennilworth, or Leamington Spa. The Campus Tour Guide that I had, a 2nd year student, lives in Leam, and he said it only takes about half an hour by bus to get to the campus.)

However, there are upsides to living in a bubble.

The upsides.

Yes, you are in a bubble. But that can be good, too. There are banks in the uni, there's lots of places to grab a bite (one cafe in every department, if I saw correctly). There's an Arts Centre, which does play host to some great acts from time to time. There's a sports centre for your sporting needs (membership £100-ish a year, apparently). There's a post office, a few barbers, a bookshop, a library with online services accessible from the web, etc. The uni is quite self-sufficient, I think you'd agree.

And yes, it's in Coventry. But if you zoom out in Google maps, you'd find that Birmingham is just a 15-min train ride away, and London isn't too far, either - 1 hour on Virgin Trains. Compare this with Exeter, which is 2 hours + from London.

The accomodation is relatively cheap by UK Uni standards. £70-120/wk for campus accomodation, and when you move out to Leamington Spa, you're not in London, so rent isn't going to be overly expensive either.

Also, it's the Unbiversity of Warwick. It has good reputation within and outside the UK. Which probably helps explain the diverse mix in the Uni.

The good rep also comes with its own perks. Lots of major employers will come down for career fairs. That's really useful in a competitive job market.

Oh, and they have a really awesome-looking pub (The Dirty Duck).

On Academics...
(You can probably research more about this on your own from the Warwick website and the various Good Uni Guides, so I'll just post what I learnt from the Open Day.)

From what I gathered during the Open Day, the University's research have received high ratings. This is important as it means you are learning from the people involved in the cutting-edge of the latest developments in the subject you're studying.

For Accounting & Finance, they bring in people working in the trade from time to time, e.g.: to teach on Taxation. And the degree is well-received by major accounting bodies - ACCA might allow up to 8 exemptions (out of 14 exams), depending on course choices.

For Economics, I've heard (from Shu-Yee :p) that they've been bringing in other Sciences into the subject, rather than just numbers. Think Psychology, Sociology, Biology, and Maths all combined into Economics. That's the 'in' thing at Warwick.

One thing I should point out though, before you get all excited about studying these things - Exams still form a major part of the Uni system here. They have project works, essays, and other assignments, but there's no escaping from exams. But then again, I think most UK Universities are reliant on exams, so if you choose to come here, you're going to face them eventually.

Did I mention the library? They have a digital catalogue of journals which are accessible from your computer (so you should be able to access them during the holidays), and they're starting to bring in eBooks, so it's good to hear that they're still improving.

Closing Statements...

Warwick is not a perfect university. But I can see myself going there. My only dilemma now is whether to make it my Firm or not.

If Yes, then I have to decide if I want to do the stupid thing of making Exeter my Insurance, or do the sensible thing by making Manchester my Insurance.

If not, then Exeter will be my Firm, and Warwick my Insurance.

(Requirements: Exeter: AAA, Warwick: AAB +C/b, Manchester: AAB)

I'll think about it before May comes. But for now, I really think I should go to Warwick.

(P.s.: When picking accomodation, try and avoid Whitefields - it's really near to the Student Union, which can be nice if you're a party animal, but not during exam time. Can get a bit noisy.)

Stuff I've been hooked on recently.

2010-03-04T10:57:00.002Z

This is going to be one of my meta posts - I just post a random list of stuff that I've been hooked on, and you get to try some of them.

Yep. It's that simple.

Anyway, Let's start with Music.

Been listening to a few artistes that I've recently been introduced to / come across. Ellie Goulding, Marina and the Diamonds, Stereophonics, Phoenix, The xx. At the same time, I'm getting hooked on stuff that's been in the middle of my commute playlist - in other words, the part that I never really get to on a normal day, beacuse I set my playlist to be so darn long. Florence & The Machine's "Dog Days Are Over" have been ringing in my ears.

Oh, for all the Imogen Heap fans out there, she's jsut uploaded this track called "The Shepherdess", created and recorded 'live' at her recent gig in Shepherd's Bush. Do go over to her website and download it if you have a credit card - the proceeds go to a local hospital in London. Apparently, Immi's trying this out - recording tracks and selling them on her site, giving the proceeds to a local charitable organisation of her choice.

Moving on, let's talk about iPhone Apps.

As many of you know, I've been using TuneIn Radio and Sleep Cycle really really often recently - probably the most used app, along with TweetDeck, Facebook, Engadget and The Guardian apps. Games-wise, I've gone geek again, recently - World Maths Day 2010 is on my phone, people. And if you have never downloaded Toobz-Free, where have you been? It's probably one of my favourite free apps on the App Store.

There's also Riddim Ribbon, which just added... drum roll, please.... .... ... 1 more track! Well, when I say 1, what I really mean is 1 remix of 2 BEP tracks - Imma Bee, and Rock That Body (another one of my 'hooked-onto-recently' tracks). But at least we know Tapulous is working on stuff for Riddim Ribbon. So go get it!

Oh, and if you're in the UK, and you're looking for the best rail guide app, there's no looking elsewhere - National Railway and CrossCountry are both great when used together. One's £4.99, the other's $0.00. Get 'em both when you're planning a train journey/checking train times!

That's all for now. Gotta rush to class!

Ooh, I Think You'll Like This.

2010-02-28T21:00:00.000Z

I know I keep blabbering on about my blog (ronfiles.blogspot.com), for the uninitiated/new Facebook friends), and how few visitors I get over there because my blog posts get syndicated onto Facebook.

Well, just to keep my blog alive, I'm doing some minor updates to the blog skin.

Well, when I say minor, it's actually quite significant, as you can see, when you get there.

I've

a) widened the text area, and

b) really centred the text, rather than just fixing it at a certain number of pixels away from the left, regardless of screen size. Also,

c) this new layout should be more iPhone-friendly, too (I hope). I'm increasing the text size just to make it more readable and touch-able. Oh, and just to haunt myself every time I visit my blog,

d) I posted my 2010 Resolutions on the 'frontpage' section.

Hope you like the changes!

On the iPlayer and the whiny cinema directors.

2010-02-26T13:33:00.002Z

Just been flipping through today's papers. Read one article that got me flipping (i.e.: upset), and another that gave me an idea.

First, the flipper.

If you haven't heard, some cinemas in Europe have chosen to boycott Tim Burton's latest creation, an adaptation of "Alice In Wonderland". The reason? Because Disney Studios were planning on releasing the movie on DVD 12 weeks after the release of the movie, instead of the standard 17 weeks. Odeon, one of the largest movie chains in the UK, gave the excuse that they've invested into the latest 3D technology, and now Disney is ruining their game by pushing ahead with an earlier DVD release. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I know, you don't get 3D on a DVD, and even if you do get it on a Blu-Ray, the typical consumer still can't enjoy it in the full 3D experience. So what has Odeon got to worry about? Why are they so afraid of people not going to the cinema just because they know the DVD version will be out earlier?

Just to clarify, most movies stop screening in a cinema by the 12th week. Then consumers hear nothing about the movie until its DVD release. From the studio's perspective, I understand why they want to try and get the movie onto DVD earlier - so they can take advantage of the momentum etc. But what about the cinemas? Why did they choose to go so far as to boycott a hotly-tipped movie, jsut because it'll come out on DVD earlier? I mean, do what you like, but it'll be a lose-lose situation. If the cinemas don't screen the movie, they lose out on revenue. People don't get to enjoy the movie in 3D. The creators don't get to share their hard work with anyone except themselves. Then the studio don't earn anything from the box offices. But they can still sell the DVDs, and consumers get a compromise - they get the DVD and not the 3D, but with the added benefit of a lower price.

Bottom line: European cinema executives are arrogant control-freaks who don't know how to do business.

Now let's move on before I erupt into a mega-rant.

I was reading an article on how the BBC heads might be scaling back the corporation. Amongst the things mentioned (e.g.: cutting Radio 6 Music, axeing 25% of the web team), one that caught my eyes was their plan to somehow halve the iPlayer site.

Now, the article didn't mention how this was goign to be executed, but as a tech-head, I thought I could offer some suggestions to the Beeb on ways it could streamline and improve the iPlayer.

Firstly, HTML 5. They must start looking into the future. Google has started experimenting with HTML 5, so much so that they actually abandoned their efforts in Google Gears (their application to let users use the other Google Apps, such as Google Docs, offline) as their sign of confidence in HTML 5 as the web standard of the future. I can go on about the benefits of HTML 5, but honestly, I think the iPlayer must get off Flash. It cripples people's computers, especially with the HD programmes, and it's not open.

Secondly, the encoding. The BBC already has H.264 streams for the iPhone and many other mobile devices. If it could somehow reduce the number of files they host, such that there's one version that's suitable for various platforms, I think they could save on not just the amount of data required to run iPlayer, but also the encoding time to get from tape to web. Think about it -

one encoding for the Mobile (iPhone/iPod/Blackberry/Android/PSP/Archos) platform,
one for the desktop/SD platform (PC/Mac/PS3/Wii),
and one for the HD-ready (PC/Mac/PS3).

In this way, each show only needs 2-3 versions (Mobile H.264, SD H.264, HD H.264), instead of the multiple versions we have now:

iPhone OS,
Windows DRM for WinMo/Archos,
Wii iPlayer,
Flash webpage,
Adobe Air,
HD Flash webpage,
HD Adobe Air,
etc. ...

Thirdly, host elsewhere. Get deals with YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook to host your content. Offload some of the burden on third-party video content companies. Channel 4 has already done so by putting up their shows on YouTube. The BBC should try doing the same if it wants to reduce its own bandwidth costs.

Well, these are just a couple of ideas that twirled in my head. Of course, there will be the issue of control - DRM, piracy, and the BBC's strange 7-days-before-we-remove-this-content policy. But if Apple could put DRM on digital music, surely the BBC can make sure only license fee-payers get access to those YouTube streams...

Well, that's just my penny's worth...

Maybe I should

2010-02-24T13:02:00.000Z

pose Ryan Lee by posting really short, 1-sentence blog posts to inflate the number of blog posts that I published this year.

Why do I take these New Year Resolutions so seriously?! Urgh!

What to do...

2010-02-24T12:55:00.001Z

Right, I need help to decide on something. Me being the indecisive person that I am, I'm having problems planning on what on earth I'll be doing this Easter break.

I have 2 weeks off (26 March - 11 April), but I know certain things are confirmed:
-Moving stuff on 1 April
-Packing stuff prior to 1 April
-Easter Service around Easter

And that's about it.

I'm thinking of visiting a number of places - Manchester, Portsmouth, London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, or maybe even outside the UK (Amsterdam, Switzerland, US?) But the thing is that I have no idea what to do in these places (other than London and Portsmouth, since I've been to these places before).

So, if you can help with suggestions, do comment/tag. If not, pretend I'm thinking out loud here.

So many things I want to do, yet so little time...

That darn New Year's Resolution...

2010-02-22T20:44:00.000Z

First thing I want to get out there - I'm giving up coffee for Lent.

Also, because I kind-of added this as an after-thought, I'm also forbidding myself from anything above 6 units of alcohol over the 40 days. It's not a complete ban, because I had alcohol during communion, and I drank on day 1 of Lent (Owl City concert).

To put into perspective, the UK government's limit is 2-3 units a day, and 21 units a week. 10ml of alcohol = 1 unit. So far, I've done 4.1375 units. So, let's see how far I'd go!

Ok, back on topic...

I'm trying to think of how I should execute my plans for the short film project. In the first place, I haven't even drawn up a really concrete plan. And the fact that I've got school + "work" to juggle with kind-of isn't helping either. So that might be one new year resolution that I'll have to put on hold for now.

On a related note, I'm thinking of investing in a Yamaha Tenori-on and Akai APC 20 as my mixing rig. But these'll probably have to wait a while, as I try to clear my personal budget deficit from my iPhone app.

Oh yeah, should probably explain. I use this iPhone app to manage my expenses for each week. Normally, I set myself a certain amount a week for my expenses - food, clothings, books, gadgets, phone top-ups, music downloads, iPhone apps, you name it. I record my transactions (approximately) and make sure I try not to go over the set budget. Hey, if I want to be an accountant/auditor, I have to be good with my own finances, right?

Anyway, I kind-of went on a spending frenzy last week, because I had to pay off in advance for my practical driving test - I don't have my own car, and even if I do, I'm not allowed to drive on my own because my provisional license means I must be accompanied, so I'll have to use a driving school. That aside, I bought new clothes (really loving this short-sleeved hoodie shirt that I got from Topman). And I did some retail therapy on my birthday (a DJ book and a lomocam).

Man, I really need to stop this BBB syndrome.

Oh, btw, have you checked out my YouTube channel recently? I uploaded the videos from the Owl City & Lights concert. Be warned though, sound quality's rubbish. But visually, it's better than most camera-phone videos out there (because it's shot on an iPhone).

Tip of the moment: HTML 5 Youtube

2010-02-18T23:31:00.001Z

Not quite sure how many of you have heard, but YouTube has introduced HTML5 onto their site not too long ago. This is actually great news for people who are getting sick and tired of Flash eating up CPU cycles.

So, what's the difference? Well, for one, you're substituting Adobe Flash, a proprietary technology that's developed by Adobe, with HTML5, a open standard for web design. One major benefit of HTML5 is that because it's more up-to-date and designed with today's internet usage in mind, it's geared better towards things like YouTube HD than, say Adobe Flash, which has only been building up more and more complex features since its conception in an unsustainable manner.

Just did some eyeball (non-scientific) tests here, and I found myself going from ~77% CPU usage for YouTube HD on Adobe Flash to less than 15% when on HTML 5. That means I still can do other things SMOOTHLY while the video is buffering.

Youtube's HTML5 implementation is still a bit experimental at the moment - You can't do fullscreen, and it won't be loaded on videos with ads. (You'll still see Flash for such videos). But when you fire up a HD, ad-free video like my montage of my visit to SG, you'll be enjoying it without taxing your CPU too much.

Also note that it's only supported by the latest HTML5-compliant browsers with h.264 codec., like Google Chrome (or IE w/ Google Chrome Frame) and Safari 4.

I recommend giving it a shot if you hate Flash, like Mr Steven P Jobs.

Opt-in at http://www.youtube.com/html5

Also check out http://www.youtube.com/testtube for other work-in-progress BETA stuff!

Albums to look out for...

2010-02-13T23:18:00.002Z

Been looking through the newsletter from a local CD store (yes, I still visit those things, even though I never buy anything from them). Seems like there's quite a lot to look forward to over the coming few weeks...

15 Feb: Owl City - Ocean Eyes.

For everyone outside the UK, stop laughing at us (as in the people in the UK). We still don't have Owl City's album. But that's about to change next Monday, when Adam Young & Co.'s music finally gets released on a full album, both physical and digital. For those of you who are completely baffled by the term "Owl City", it's the name of a project/band that's mainly centred around this insomniac from Minnesota who goes by the name of Adam Young. He taps away at his laptop and musical instruments in the basement while awake, mixing up some awesome tunes, uploaded to Myspace, got really popular, and is now on charts and sell-out concerts. Typical MySpace Cinderella Story.

22 Feb: Marina & the Diamonds - Family Jewels.

Half Greek, half Welsh, and slightly obsessed with American/Hollywood Pop Culture. Seems like female solo artistes are developing the habit of adopting a stage name that fits the format "[First name] and the [noun]" (Florence and the machine, Marina and the diamonds, what's next? Diana and the Roses, which sounds a bit like "Diana Ross"?) Naming aside, Marina has the potential to become one of the big names in 2010, as predicted by pundits who were nominating people for the BBC Sound of 2010 title (She was a runner-up). Judging from the singles that she has released so far, she sounds cheeky, perky and fun. A nice change from the emo stuff we've been having from Flo+TM, I guess.

1 Mar: Ellie Goulding - Lights

Remember me talking about the BBC Sound of 2010 award just 2 paragraphs ago? Well, this is the winner. Ellie Goulding, an artiste whom you probably never heard of before, but if things go well for her, she might just be the next Little Boots! Now, describing her music is not easy, since there's only 3 tracks that I can find at the moment. I would compare her to Regina Spektor and Florence & the Machine - she has airy vocals (though it's not too bad), and her range does go quite high.

8 Mar: Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

I must confess, I'm not really a big fan of Gorillaz's music (with the exception of Dare and Feel Good Inc.). The only thing I like about them is their music videos and their use of those cartoon characters. But hey, it's the Gorillaz, and they're back after 3-5 years of 'silence' with a new album. Worth checking out, I guess. Especially if you're a Gorillaz fan.

22 Mar: Jónsi - Go

Jónsi, for those of you who aren't aware, is the lead in Sigur Rós, the Icelandic band responsible for one of the most beautiful piece of music in the last decade, Hoppípolla. Yes, the falsetto guy. He's been working on some solo stuff, and it'll all be revealed on 22 Mar. For now, you can look around YouTube and listen to (or if you're lucky/late enough, view the MV) to one of the tracks from his album, "Go Do". Really bizarre, yet in a Lady Gaga way, fascinating music video.

Jónsi - Go Do from Jónsi on Vimeo.

By the way, I think he's singing in English. I think.

Right, that's what I'll be looking forward to over the next few weeks!

By the way, 16 March is the Brits Award. Look out for that, too!

Google.

2010-02-12T11:16:00.002Z

This will be a short one - I promise.

I look at Google today, coming up with all these new 'social networks' like Wave, Buzz, etc. But somehow, it doesn't excite me as much as, oh, I don't know, Facebook and Twitter.

Maybe I'm being overly critical and pessimistic, but seriously, does anyone outside 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway use these things? If you do, I'd be really interested to hear how you use them, and how often.

My problem is that whatever Google comes up with, none of my friends really use them. Sure, it may be superior over Twitter in a million ways, and it's much cleaner than Facebook, but I just don't see myself using it to socialise, because it's a ghost-town there! At least I have a few twitteratis on Twitter, and 401+ friends on Facebook. But on Google Wave? Less than 5. And I doubt Buzz will do any better.

And as I tweeted before -Buzz seems to have some privacy issue. I was on the bus, on my way home, and out of curiosity, I logged on to Buzz on my iPhone. What was the first thing I saw? A map of recent 'buzzes' from a guy who didn't like a light show down at the Pier near where I was, from 15 hours ago. That's a bit too much open-ness, if you ask me. And I know Twitter has the same feature, but at least the UI is quite clean, so you know roughly where to look if you want to turn of Geotagging. On Google Buzz? I don't even know how I read my friends' Buzz Profile page!

Oh, on the topic of Google, I'd love to see them build a 1Gbps Fiber network.

iPhone App Reviews...

2010-02-11T13:37:00.002Z

I promised Ryan (Ren Yuan) that I'd do an iPhone app review blog post.

Well, to be honest, I don't know what a good format of an app review post should be. (Hey, this blog is experimental, after all.) So I'm going to play around with the format. AppJudgement has their "Download/Don't Download" judgement, and I, well, have a phletora of options to choose from. But as a first post (and because I'm on the school PC, which means I can't hook up my iPhone to get screenshots), I'll just do a quick bout of app names, what they do, a couple of thoughts/opinions, and a score, plus a "usage frequency" rating - how often I actually use the app in my day-to-day life.

So, here goes!

App: Moodagent
What it does:
Generates Playlists based on 5 different 'mood' ratings - think of it as Genius playlist generator with mood.

Thoughts:
You need more than 25 non-obscure songs to use this app fully. In my experience, the app is well-thought-out. Once you generate a playlist, you can save it, or even play the playlist when you leave the app (it plays in the iPod app), or if you find another song from which you want to generate a playlist, you can select an icon next to the song, and it'll make a playlist with the same mood as that song. Otherwise, play around with the scales and the app will create a playlist.

The scales' significance can be a bit vague at times, but otherwise, it works as well, if not better, than Genius, as long as you don't listen to really obscure stuff.

Pricing: Free (as at time of posting)
App Score: 4/5
Usage frequency: rarely - I don't make playlists that often, unfortunately. I just set it and forget it.

App: Riddim Ribbon
What it does:
It's a new game from Tapulous, the creators of the ubiquitous Tap Tap Revenge that every iPhone or iPod touch has probably had on its home screen at least once in one iteration or another. This game is still music-based, except that it tries to emulate DJ Hero rather than Rock Band. You tilt the phone from side to side as you try to keep a ball on the track (ha! no pun intended). Stray off or hit the obstacles and you lose energy, which means you can't jump over to the next stage in the music.

Thoughts:
The 'Fail' system in this game can be a bit harsh and demoralising for new gamers (and let's admit it - that's a lot of us, considering how new this genre is). If you hit one of the obstacles jsut before the checkpoint, you'll lose energy and fail automatically - this is compared to its cousins, Guitar Hero, where if you miss a couple of times, regardless of section, you can still try to fight your way back to the green while the crowd jeers at you.

Also, maybe it's just me not gaming enough on my iPhone, but there can be a steep learning curve when trying to play this game. As a guide, think of the two dotted lines in the track as fulcrums. If you keep your phone in the normal position, you'll be in the exact middle of those two dotted lines. Tilt slightly to one side, and you'll get on the dotted line. Tilt further, and you'll stray out and onto the outer lane. A bit like changing lanes on a highway, except you have to keep the phone tilted to stay in a lane.

Oh, one more complaint - This game has been in development for some time now, why are there so few music tracks to play with? Only 3 BEP tracks and a few downloadable Tiesto tracks? Where's the Gaga? Owl City? Come on! Bring them over from TTR!

Pricing: £1.79 in the UK as at posting. Downloadables approximately £0.59.
App Score: 4/5. If they had more tracks to play with, I would give 5/5.
Usage Frequency: Often - I'm hooked on this game!

App: Sleep Cycle
What it does: In 3 words: Glorified Alarm Clock. More specifically: It uses the accelerometer in the iPhone (apparently, not iPod touch compatible) to detect movements while you're asleep. Based on these movements, it interprets whether you're in your deep REM sleep, awake, or dreaming. When it senses that you're in your 'light sleep', it sounds the alarm.
Thoughts:
This app will not suit everyone. You'll need to be able to put your iPhone on your bed, next to your head, and it should be charged unless you want a flat battery the next day. (oh, and if you have a Tempur bed, this app won't work.) And let's not even get into the radiation talk. Also, maybe it's just me being pedantic, but this morning, the app woke me up at 7.26 - that's 19 minutes before the time I intended to wake up! I wanted a nice snooze after I saw the time, but no, the app asks for me to get off my lazy bum, even though I only had 5 hours sleep the night before.

Also, a bit TMI, much? Why do I need to see that I dream at 2-3am?

But I have to say, for someone who's a bit OCD like myself, this app is fascinating in the "I want to know everything even if it's dumb or inaccurate" sense. And from what I see, it appears to work on me.

Pricing: £0.59 (look out for the LexWare Labs AB one. That's the one I tested, so that's the only one I can tell you about.)
App Score: 4/5 - The radiation is a concern for me.
Usage Frequency: Nightly. I'm really interested in how this app works and analyzes my physiological patterns when I'm sleeping/about to sleep/getting up. Even though I'm exposing myself to even more radiation, on top of what my MacBook Pro emits.